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5TATL  OF  CALIFORNIA 

OFFICL  5UPE.RINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 


CON5E.RVATION 


OF 


NATURAL    RESOURCES 


It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  prosperity  of  our  people  depends  directly  on  the  energy 
and  intelligence  with  which  our  natural  resources  are  used.  It  is  equally  clear 
that  these  resources  are  the  final  basis  of  natural  power  and  perpetuity.  Finally, 
it  is  ominously  evident  that  these  resources  are  in  the  course  of  rapid  exhaustion. 


FROM  THE 


TWENTY-THIRD   BILNNIAL  REPORT 


EDWARD   HYATT 


5UPLRINTENDLNT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 


J 


SACRAMLNTO.    CALIFORNIA 
1909 


^G^^' 


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PRINTED  AT  THE  STATE  PRINTING  OFFICE 
W.  W.   SHANNON,   SUPERINTENDENT. 


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CONSERVATION  OF  NATURAL 
RESOURCES. 


Introductory   by  the  Superintendent  of   Public   Instruction. 


WORD  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
My  friends,  during  the  past  year  I  have  become 
possessed  by  the  idea  that  the  largest,  the  most 
truly  patriotic,  the  most  vitally  important  move- 
ment in  this  nation  to-day  is  the  one  looking  to  the 
Conservation  of  our  Natural  Resources.  This  has 
been  large  enough  to  call  together  a  Conference  of 
Governors,  to  cause  the  appointment  of  a  National 
Commission,  and  to  engage  the  earnest  attention, 
the  gravest  concern  of  the  greatest  and  most  bril- 
liant minds  of  our  continent.  It  is  patriotic,  for 
it  looks  to  the  preservation  of  our  fatherland  into 
the  future  with  its  power  and  glory  undimmed. 
It  is  vitally  important,  for  without  it  our  nation  is  doomed  to  go  down 
to  poverty  and  weakness.  It  is  unselfish,  for  it  looks  forward  to  the 
welfare  of.  those  who  come  after  us,  rather  than  for  our  own  little  per- 
sonal benefit  now.  It  is  a  vital  and  a  worthy  thing,  however  we  view  it. 
I  have  become  possessed  by  the  idea,  too,  that  it  is  highly  important 
for  the  school  people  of  this  State  to  join  in  this  movement ;  for  them 
to  grasp  its  significance,  appreciate  its  momentum,  take  hold  of  it 
strongly  and  intelligently.  Such  a  movement  as  this  must  fail  unless 
it  can  be  projected  into  the  future.  It  can  only  be  projected  into  the 
future  through  the  children  of  the  nation.  If  it  would  really  get  per- 
manently into  the  hearts  of  the  People,  it  must  filter  through  the 
Children. 

I  conceive  it  to  be  a  patriotic  duty  resting  upon  every  teacher,  every 
superintendent,  every  school  officer,  to  take  his  share  of  responsibility 
in  this  thing;  to  read,  to  talk,  to  think,  to  inform  himself  about  this 
great  movement  for  Conservation — and  then  to  pass  the  spirit  of  it  all 
along  to  the  Children.  In  no  other  state  or  country  is  such  variety  and 
wealth  of  natural  resources  to  be  found  as  in  California.  Nowhere  else 
is  it  being  squandered  with  such  careless  hand,  nor  is  there  elsewhere 
such  necessity  for  wise  and  thoughtful  and  far-seeing  School  People. 


The«e:  i^cJg-^op.^  impel  m^  to ,  collect  from  letters,  talks,  newspapers, 
magazines,  ttis  little  handbook  of  Conservation.  It  is  meant  to  be  read. 
It  is  meant  to  give  a  notion  of  what  people  are  thinking  and  saying 
about  the  subject.  It  is  meant  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  school 
people  of  California,  to  give  them  some  means  for  measuring  the 
importance  of  the  movement,  some  materials  for  shaping  the  sentiments 
of  themselves  and  their  children.  It  is  only  a  start.  I  hope  it  can  be 
accepted  as  a  start  in  the  right  direction,  and  that  it  may  lead  toward 
good  citizenship  and  the  general  weal. 
Very  truly  yours, 

EDWARD  HYATT. 


5  — 


THE  CASE  OUTLINED. 


What  Does  It  Mean? 

Just  what  does  it  mean — this  Conservation  of  Natural  Resources? 
Why,  it  means  simply  the  wise  care  and  use  of  our  forests,  our  mines, 
our  water,  our  soil.  These  are  the  fundamental  sources  of  wealth  that 
have  been  given  to  us  by  nature. 

Why  Are  We  Great? 

Why  is  our  nation  one  of  the  greatest  in  all  the  world  ?  Is  it  because 
we  are  stronger  people,  better  people  than  the  rest  of  the  world?  Not 
at  all.  It  all  rests  upon  the  wonderful,  the  amazing  natural  resources 
of  North  America.  The  great  fortunes,  the  great  cities,  the  great 
achievements  of  this  nation,  past  and  future,  all  depend  upon  our 
natural  resources. 

Where  Does  Our  Money  Come  From? 

Whence  comes  the  money  of  the  thousands  of  rich  Americans  who 
set  all  Europe  agape?  Whence  come  the  funds  to  construct  the  great 
sky-scrapers,  to  rebuild  ruined  cities,  to  make  fleets  of  warships,  trans- 
continental railroads,  interoceanic  canals  and  the  other  titanic  under- 
takings that  we  are  continually  carrying  out  ? 

From  Our  Natural  Storehouses. 

It  all  comes  from  American  copper,  or  wheat  or  lumber  or  coal  or 
oil  or  gas  or  iron ;  or  from  the  railroads  or  ships  hauling  these  things ; 
or  from  trading  with  the  people  who  work  in  these  things ;  or  from  the 
utilities  of  the  cities  that  grow  upon  these  things.  Everything  in  all 
our  power  and  civilization  and  luxury  goes  straight  back  to  our  natural 
storehouses  of  wealth.  And  we  got  them  so  easily  that  we  do  not  even 
appreciate  them  as  yet. 

Suppose  They  Were  Gone? 

But  suppose  these  storehouses  were  gone,  or  nearly  empty?  What 
would  American  enterprise  amount  to  if  it  had  nothing  to  exploit? 
What  figure  does  a  poverty-stricken  nation  cut  in  the  world?  What 
rich  and  populous  nations  in  history  have  not  gone  down  into  groveling 
insignificance  by  squandering  their  natural  resources? 

Unthinking  Babes. 

Up  to  date  we  have  been  careless,  heedless  children  with  all  our 
resources,  giving  them  away,  destroying  them,  wasting  them  with  lavish 
hands,  and  with  no  thought  of  the  morrow.    He  who  can  destroy  most 


of  our  public  property  in  the  shortest  time  most  excites  our  childish 
admiration.  We  have  been  busily  playing  our  little  games,  paying  no 
attention  while  some  of  the  boys  have  set  the  house  afire. 

Something  Is  Doing. 

But  now  an  awakening  seems  to  be  coming.  Its  first  tangible  appear- 
ance was  a  Conference  of  Governors  of  the  states  and  territories  of  the 
United  States  at  the  White  House  in  Washington,  presided  over  by 
President  Roosevelt.  Very  many  of  the  wisest  and  ablest  men  of  the 
United  States  took  part  in  this  Conference — statesmen,  philosophers, 
captains  of  industry.  The  Conference  was  followed  in  June  by  the 
formation  of  a  National  Conservation  Commission  of  forty-eight  mem- 
bers, appointed  by  the  President. 

The  General  Plan. 

This  National  Commission  is  now  at  work.  It  is  the  plan  that  many 
commissions  and  associations  throughout  the  states  of  the  Union  shall 
be  formed  to  work  with  it,  either  upon  Conservation  as  a  whole  or  upon 
some  phase  of  the  subject  vital  to  the  particular  locality.  The  results 
of  this  work  are  to  be  reported  from  time  to  time  to  the  state  legislatures 
and  to  the  United  States  Congress ;  and  made  the  basis  for  a  wide  and 
harmonious  system  of  laws  governing  our  Natural  Resources. 

But  this  wise  and  patriotic  plan  will  fall  down  utterly,  will  come  to 
naught,  will  turn  to  ashes  in  our  grasp — unless  it  can  he  hacked  up^ 
supported,  urged  on  hy  a  strong,  stern,  unsleeping  Puhlic  Opinion. 

Therefore  It  Is. 

Therefore  it  is  that  the  matter  must  be  carried  to  the  people,  to  the 
teachers,  to  the  children.  They  must  learn  the  facts  and  form  their 
sentiments  and  see  their  duty.  Commissions  and  legislatures  will 
accomplish  nothing  unless  we  can  wake  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the 
people.  The  movement  for  Conservation  can  go  no  further  than  public 
opinion  will  carry  it;  but  it  will  go  fully  as  far  as  public  opinion 
will  go.       [E.  H.] 

Aristotle  says,  "All  who  have  meditated  on  the 
art  of  governing  mankind  have  been  convinced  that 
the  fate  of  empires  depends  on  the  education  of 
youth." 


—  7 


THE  NATIONAL  CONSERVATION  COMMISSION. 

This  body  is  composed  of  forty-eight  eminent  men  of  the  United 
States.  California  is  represented  by  Senator  Frank  P.  Flint  and 
Ex-Governor  Pardee.  Others  are  familiar  names,  as  Senator  Burton 
of  Ohio,  Dolliver  of  Iowa,  Beveridge  of  Indiana,  Champ  Clark  of 
Missouri,  Nelson  of  Minnesota,  John  Mitchell,  Andrew  Carnegie,  Presi- 
dent Van  Hise,  John  Hays  Hammond.  The  headquarters  is  at  Wash- 
ington. The  President  and  the  Secretary  have  examined  the  plan  and 
purpose  of  these  pages  and  have  expressed  approving  sentiments  in 
the  following  letters: 

WASHINGTON,  Nov.  6,  1908. 

To  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 

Sacramento,  California. 
My  dear  sir! 

I  hasten  to  express  my  gratification  over 
the  excellent  way  in  which  you  have  worked 
out  your  idea  of  devoting  a  part  of  your 
biennial  Report  to  Conservation.   It  is 
thoroughly  admirable,  and  I.  am  sure  will  do 
a  great  deal  toward  making  the  volume  a  very 
effective  agency  for  good.   You  have  discov- 
ered a  new,  and,  I  am  convinced,  extremely 
powerful  channel  for  the  advancement  of  the 
movement.   I  congratulate  you  upon  having 
perceived  this  opportunity  to  promote  educa- 
tion, and  again  congratulate  you  on  being 
able  so  effectively  to  put  your  idea  into 
execution.   I  shall  appreciate  any  opportu- 
nity to  assist  you  in  the  project. 
Very  truly  yours, 

GIFFORD  PINCHOT, 

Chairman. 


WASHINGTON,  Dec.  18,  1908. 

The  Supt .  of  Public  Instruction, 

Sacramento,  Gal. 
My  dear  sir: 

You  are  the  first  State  officer,  of  whom 
I  have  any  knowledge,  to  take  up  Conserva- 
tion in  the  way  you  propose  to  treat  it,  in 
your  Report.   I  believe  that  your  action 
will  be  the  opening  wedge  in  this  great 
movement  among  the  teachers  of  the  whole 
country.   I  congratulate  you  on  your  concep- 
tion of  the  idea,  and  I  hope  you  will  feel 
perfectly  free  to  call  upon  the  Commission 
for  any  additional  assistance  which  you  may 
desire.   Will  you  not  kindly  keep  me  in 
touch  with  the  progress  of  your  Report,  and 
believe  me. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

THOMAS  R.  SHIPP, 

Secretary. 


WHAT  PEOPLE  ARE 
THINKING. 


THIS  movement  is  so  new 
that  many  of  us  do  not  yet 
appreciate  its  momentum. 
Most  of  us  never  even  heard  of 
it  until  within  the  last  few 
months.  Nothing  can  give  us  a 
better  idea  of  it,  perhaps,  and 
nothing  can  be  more  interesting 
than  to  see  what  other  people 
are  really  thinking  and  saying 
about  it;  particularly  so  if  the 
other  people  are  ones  we  respect 
or  ones  who  have  had  unusual 
opportunity  to  know  what  they 
are  talking  about.  With  this  in 
view  the  following  expressions 
of  individual  opinion  have  been 
collected. 

These  can  be  used  by  a  clever 
teacher  in  many  ways.  For  in- 
stance, in  the  morning  exercises, 
one  can  be  read  aloud  by  a  pupil, 
or  explained  by  the  teacher. 
Another  may  be  given  as  a  dec- 
lamation or  a  reading  at  some 
entertainment  or  patriotic  cele- 
bration. Still  another,  perhaps, 
w^ll  yield  quotations  and  strong 
points  for  debates,  essays  and 
other  similar  school  activities. 

Of  course,  if  the  spirit  does 
not  move  the  teacher  to  use  these 
things,  they  all  fall  flat.  But 
California  teachers  never  lack 
for  spirit. 


A  bit   of  our  forest. 


—  10  — 

The  President  of  the  United  States. 

''The  necessity  for  a  comprehensive  and  systematic  improvement  of 
our  waterAvays,  the  preservation  of  our  soil  and  of  our  forests,  the 
securing  from  private  appropriation  the  power  in  navigable  streams, 
the  retention  of  the  undisposed  of  coal  lands  of  the  Government  from 
alienation,  all  will  properly  claim  from  the  next  Administration  earnest 
attention  and  appropriate  legislation. 

Without  the  resources  which  make  labor  productive,  American  enter- 
prise, energy,  and  skill  would  not  in  the  past  have  been  able  to  make 
headway  against  hard  conditions.  Our  children  and  their  children 
will  not  be  able  to  make  headway  if  we  leave  to  them  an  impoverished 
country.  Our  land,  our  waters,  our  forests,  and  our  minerals  are  the 
sources  from  which  come  directly  or  indirectly  the  livelihood  of  all 
of  us.  The  conservation  of  our  natural  resources  is  a  question  of 
fundamental  importance  to  the  United  States  now. 

The  truth  is  that  the  overwhelming  necessity  for  our  doing  something 
to  conserve  our  natural  resources  is  going  to  put  us  to  a  new  test  of  the 
practical  character  of  our  system  of  government.  It  is  going  to  involve 
the  question  of  whether,  with  the  changing  conditions,  with  the  closer 
relations  and  the  interdependence  of  the  various  parts  of  this  country, 
our  National  Constitution  will  furnish  the  means  of  meeting  that  neces- 
sity.   Now,  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  will. ' ' 

Wm.  ir.  Taft. 

A  Famous  Churchman. 

"No  policy  of  our  National  Government  is  more  in  keeping  with 
those  democratic  principles  upon  which  our  Republic  is  founded  than 
the  conservation  of  our  natural  resources,  and  none  is  to  have  a  greater 
influence  upon  the  future  prosperity  of  our  land.  Our  fertile  soils, 
our  inland  waters,  our  mines,  and  our  forests  are  God-given  heritages 
which  belong  no  more  to  the  present  generation  than  to  generations 
that  are  to  come.  It  is  our  duty  as  American  citizens  to  regard  these 
resources  as  sacred  trusts,  to  preserve  them,  and  to  use  them  wisel}^ 
and  with  moderation,  that  we  may,  as  far  as  possible,  provide  against 
the  days  of  want  that  are  surely  approaching;  and  that  when  these 
days  are  at  hand  they  may  not  come  as  a  crushing  retribution.  l)ut  as 
a  wholesome  discipline  by  which  we  shall  be  taught  the  great  lessorjs 
of  thrift  and  foresight." 

Cardinal  Gibbons. 

The  Great  Commoner. 

' '  It  should  be  our  purpose,  not  only  to  preserve  the  nation 's  resources 
for  future  generations  by  reducing  waste  to  a  minimum;  we  should  see 
to  it  that  a  few  of  the  people  do  not  monopolize  that  which  in  equity  is 
the  property  of  all  the  people.     The  earth  belongs  to  each  generation, 


—  11  — 

and  it  is  as  criminal  to  fetter  future  generations  with  perpetual  fran- 
chises, making  the  multitude  servants  to  a  favored  faction  of  the 
population,  as  it  would  be  to  impair,  unnecessarily,  the  common  store. 

Money  spent  in  care  for  the  life  and  health  of  the  people,  in  pro- 
tecting the  soil  from  erosion  and  from  exhaustion,  in  preventing  waste 
in  the  use  of  minerals  of  limited  supply,  in  the  reclamation  of  deserts 
and  swamps,  and  in  the  preservation  of  forests  still  remaining  and 
the  planting  of  denuded  tracts — money  invested  in  these  and  in  the 
development  of  waterways  and  in  the  deepening  of  harbors  is  an 
investment  jdelding  an  annual  return.  If  any  of  these  expenditures 
fail  to  bring  a  return  at  once  the  money  expended  is  like  a  bequest  to 
those  who  come  after  us.  And  as  the  parent  lives  for  his  child  as  well 
as  for  himself,  so  the  good  citizen  provides  for*  the  future  as  well  as 
for  the  present." 

William  Jennings  Bryan. 

The  President  of  the  University  of  California. 

' '  This  small  revolving  globe  we  dwell  upon  has  been  used  as  a  home  by 
us  humans,  by  us  and  our  ancestors,  for  a  goodly  row  of  centuries.  But 
we  were  too  few  and  weak  to  master  it  and  put  it  clean  beneath  our  feet. 
It  mostly  got  the  best  of  us.  Of  late  we  have  come  to  get  the  best  of  it. 
It  used  to  thwart  us,  and  steer  us,  and  tell  us  what  we  must  do.  Now 
we  tell  it  what  we  want  to  do,  and  make  it  do  it  for  us.  We  have 
fettered  its  strengths  with  steel  and  made  them  work  for  us.  We  force 
its  down-hill  waters  to  carry  us  up  hill.  We  use  its  own  treasures  of 
fuel  to  belittle  its  size  and  dignity ;  to  curb  it  and  humble  it,  and  even 
to  reshape  it. 

This  is  all  very  well,  but  of  late  men  have  been  finding  this  robbing 
and  humiliating  of  the  prostrate  body  of  nature  so  easy  and  so  interest- 
ing as  to  make  it  a  form  of  sport.  They  rob  and  exploit  without  refer- 
ence to  any  present  need,  just  to  show  what  they  can  do.  It  is  like  the 
killing  of  the  buffaloes  for  the  fun  of  shooting,  until  all  at  once  it 
appeared  they  were  practically  exterminated. 

This  generation  will  have  for  one  thing  at  least  a  great  name  in 
history.  Men  of  the  future  centuries  will  surely  call  it  the  generation  of 
the  great  destroyers,  and  historians  and  economists  will  write  of  the 
riotous  days  of  nineteen  hvmdred,  when  the  people  used  up  all  the 
petroleum,  all  the  natural  gas,  all  the  anthracite  and  most  of  the  other 
coal,  and  most  of  the  handy  iron.  It  will  be  the  period  when  the  forests 
were  cut  down  or  burnt  up,  the  lands  stolen,  and  the  waters  given  away. 
We  are  sure  to  be  the  subject  of  earnest  remark. ' ' 

Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler. 


—  12  — 

The  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

* '  Why  should  a  great  resource,  which  is  owned  by  the  people  at  large. 
be  used  by  private  interests,  by  somebody  that  is  looking  only  to  his 
own  benefit,  and  not  to  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  the  country?  The 
people  as  a  whole  own  these  natural  resources.  They  are  not  divided. 
But  the  people  as  a  whole,  as  I  say,  own  them,  and  it  is  for  them  to 
determine  whether  those  resources  shall  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  all, 
or  shall  be  turned  over  to  be  used  unregulated  for  the  benefit  of  those 
who  may  perchance  first  get  a  foothold  in  any  special  locality.  In  any 
law  that  is  passed,  in  any  theory  of  disposition  that  is  adopted,  we 
must  look  not  only  to  their  conservation  and  use,  but  we  must  look  to 
the  prevention  of  their  monopolization  in  the  hands  of  a  few  favored 
interests."  James  R.  Garfield. 

A  Great  Labor  Leader. 
''In  our  mad  rush  for  spoils  and  profits  we  not  only  waste  and 
destroy  those  material  resources  with  which  God  has  so  bountifully 
endowed  us,  but  we  press  forward  in  the  race,  sacrificing,  unnecessarily, 
the  lives  and  the  comfort  of  our  fellow-beings.  It  seems  to  me  that 
the  time  has  come  when  we  should  stop  for  a  moment  and  think — not 
alone  of  those  inanimate  things  that  make  for  comfort  and  prosperity, 
but  also  of  the  men,  and  the  women,  and  the  children,  whose  toil  and 
deprivation  have  made  and  will  continue  to  make  our  country  and  our 
people  the  most  progressive  and  the  most  intelligent  of  all  the  nations 
and  of  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth. ' '  John  Mitchell. 

A  California  College  President. 

"The  greatest  results  of  the  administration  of  President  Roosevelt 
have  been  twofold:  the  awakening  of  the  civic  conscience  in  our  country, 
and  the  movement  towards  the  conservation  of  our  natural  resources. 
These  two  results  are  closely  connected,  and  each  movement  strengthens 
the  other.  There  is  now  nothing  in  American  politics  of  greater  prac- 
tical importance  than  the  preservation  of  our  national  domain,  with 
all  that  it  contains,  and  all  this  developed  to  the  highest  point  of 
efficiency. 

Of  these  elements,  that  of  forest  preservation  now  stands  first  in 
pressing  importance  and  deserves  the  constant  support  of  all  good  men. 
Very  important  is  also  the  preservation  of  the  birds,  to  which  the 
Audubon  societies  are  dedicated.  The  saving  of  the  fisheries  is  likewise 
a  matter  of  large  moment  to  the  future  and  in  this  I  am  giving  per- 
sonally all  the  help  I  can. 

As  for  the  waters,  soils  and  all  such  matters,  our  many  centers  of 
investigation  and  instruction  in  agriculture  are  giving  splendid  pledges 
for  the  future."  David  Starr  Jordan. 


—  13  — 

The  Ex- President  of  the  United  States. 

'*  In  utilizing  and  conserving  the  natural  resources  of  the  nation  the 
one  characteristic  more  essential  than  any  other  is  foresight.  Unfor- 
tunately, foresight  is  not  usually  characteristic  of  a  young  and  vigorous 
people,  and  it  is  obviously  not  a  marked  characteristic  of  us  in  the 
United  States.  Yet  assuredly  it  should  be  the  growing  nation  with  a 
future  which  takes  the  long  look  ahead ;  and  no  other  nation  is  growing 
so  rapidly  as  ours  or  has  a  future  so  full  of  promise.  No  other  nation 
enjoys  so  wonderful  a  measure  of  present  prosperity  which  can  of 
right  be  treated  as  an  earnest  of  future  success,  and  in  no  other  are 
the  rewards  of  foresight  so  great,  so  certain,  and  so  easily  foretold. 
Yet  hitherto  as  a  nation  we  have  tended  to  live  with  an  eye  single  to 
the  present,  and  have  permitted  the  reckless  waste  and  destruction  of 
much  of  our  natural  wealth. 

The  conservation  of  our  natural  resources  and  their  proper  use  con- 
stitute the  fundamental  problem  which  underlies  almost  every  other 
problem  of  our  national  life.  Unless  we  maintain  an  adequate  material 
basis  for  our  civilization,  we  can  not  maintain  the  institutions  in  which 
we  take  so  great  and  just  a  pride ;  and  to  waste  and  destroy  our  natural 
resources  means  to  undermine  this  material  basis. ' ' 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 

A  Famous  Ex- President. 

''Those  most  proudly  happy  in  their  sanguine  Americanism,  and 
most  confident  of  our  ability  to  accomplish  all  things,  must  confess  that 
our  national  life  has  been  habitually  beset  with  careless  wastefulness, 
and  that  a  palpable  manifestation  of  this  wastefulness  is  seen  in  the 
destruction  of  tree  growth  and  the  denudation  of  watersheds  on  our 
Western  lands.  Laws  passed  with  the  professed  intent  of  protecting 
our  forests  have  been  so  amiably  construed  as  to  admit  of  easy  invasion ; 
and  their  execution  has  too  often  been  lax  and  perfunctory.  In  the 
mean  time,  public  opinion  on  this  subject,  which  might  be  as  effective 
as  legal  enactment,  has  comfortably  slumbered. 

Even  if  we  now  abjectly  repent  of  our  sins  of  omission  and  commis- 
sion in  our  treatment  of  the  forests  and  streams  which  nature  has  given 
us,  and  reproach  ourselves  for  the  neglect  of  a  trust  imposed  on  us  for 
the  benefit  of  future  generations,  we  must  at  the  same  time  humbly 
confess  that  the  punishment  we  have  suffered  by  flood,  by  drought,  by 
tornado,  by  fire,  by  barrenness  of  soil,  and  by  loss  of  timber  value^ 
is  well  deserved. 

In  these  circumstances  it  is  exceedingly  gratifying  to  have  an  appro- 
priate opportunity  to  congratulate  those  who  have  constantly  labored 
in  the  cause  of  forestry  and  forest  preservation,  as  well  as  those  inter- 
ested in  the  cognate  subject  of  irrigation,  upon  the  prospect  that  these 
topics  are  to  have  more  prominent  places  in  governmental  care. 


—  14  — 

Through  the  teachings  of  intelligent  forestry  it  has  been  made  plain 
that  in  our  Western  localities  ruinous  floods  and  exhausting  droughts 
can  be  largely  prevented,  and  productive  moisture  in  useful  degree  and 
at  needed  periods  secured,  by  a  reasonable  and  discriminating  preserva- 
tion of  our  forest  areas;  the  advocates  of  irrigation  have  been  led  to 
realize  that  it  is  useless  to  provide  for  the  storage  of  water  unless  the 
sources  of  its  supply  are  protected ;  and  all  those  who,  in  a  distinterested 
way,  have  examined  these  questions  concede  that  tree  growth  and  nat- 
ural soil  on  our  watersheds  are  more  valuable  to  the  masses  of  our 
people  than  the  footprints  of  sheep  or  cattle. 

The  opportune  time  has  arrived  when  effective  public  interest  in 
forestry  and  forest  preservation  should  be  persistently  aroused  and 
stimulated. ' ' 

Grover  Cleveland  in  1904. 

A  Famous  Mining  Engineer. 
''The  ever-increasing  rapidity  of  exploitation  consequent  upon  the 
exigencies  of  niodern  engineering  and  economic  practice  inevitably 
leads  to  an  alarming  diminution  of  the  lives — if  I  may  use  that  term — 
of  our  mineral  products.  The  culmination  of  our  mining  industry  is 
to  be  reckoned  by  decades,  and  its  declension  (if  not  practically  its 
economic  exhaustion)   in  generations,  not  in  centuries." 

John  Hays  Hammond. 

An  American  Political  Economist. 
"If  we  want  to  "prolong  American  prosperity  and  maintain  the  high 
level  of  American  wages,  our  wage  being  double  that  of  the  other 
nations  of  the  earth,  we  must  protect  our  facilities  and  enlarge  our 
ability  to  produce  and  manufacture  the  things  that  we  manufacture 
at  the  lowest  cost.  *  *  *  If  we  had  no  advantage  in  the  marketing 
of  our  goods,  either  in  excellence  or  quantity  or  cheapness  of  produc- 
tion, it  simply  would  mean  that  American  labor  would  be  reduced  to  the 
labor  of  all  other  nations  of  the  world,  and  if  we  want  to  maintain  its 
high  level  we  must  protect  the  facilities  that  will  enable  us  to  produce 
our  goods  at  the  very  lowest  possible  cost." 

William  S.  Harvey. 

The  State  Geologist  of  West  Virginia. 
''Just  as  sure  as  the  sun  shines,  and  the  sum  of  two  and  two  is  four, 
unless  this  insane  riot  of  destruction  and  waste  of  our  fuel  resources 
which  has  characterized  the  past  century  shall  be  speedily  ended,  our 
industrial  power  and  supremacy  will,  after  a  meteor-like  existence, 
revert',  before  the  close  of  the  present  century,  to  those  nations  that 
conserve  and  prize  at  their  proper  value  their  priceless  treasures  of 
carbon. "        <  T.  0.  White. 


—  15  —  .    • 

A  Captain  of  the  Steel  Industry. 

''We  are  nationally  in  the  position  of  a  large  family  receiving  a  rich 
patrimony  from  thrifty  parents  deceased  intestate.  *  *  *  Now,  the 
first  duty  of  such  a  family  is  to  take  stock  of  its  patrimony;  the  next 
to  manage  the  assets  in  such  manner  that  none  shall  be  wasted,  that 
all  be  put  to  the  greatest  good  of  the  living  and  their  descendants. ' ' 

Andrev^  Carnegie. 

The  Governor  of  California. 

' '  Certainly  this  great  nation  must  conserve  the  foundations  of  its  pros- 
perity if  it  would  continue  great.  And  certainly  no  state  is  more  inter- 
ested in  the  matter  than  California.  Resources  of  every  kind  have  been 
richly  given  to  us — great  forests,  splendid  soils,  plentiful  waters,  valu- 
able mines.  It  is  no  more  than  ordinary  business  prudence  for  us  to 
take  stock  of  our  inheritances  and  find  out  the  best  way  to  handle  them 
in  future.  Our  children  have  a  right  to  demand  that  we  pass  this  great 
property  on  to  them  unimpaired,  so  that  they  and  their  children's 
children  may  continue  to  live  and  to  prosper. ' ' 

J.  N.  GiLLETT. 
The  Governor  of  Utah. 
"The  great,  broad  principle  underlying  the  subject  of  conservation 
is  whether  or  not  each  succeeding  generation  can  be  sustained  on  the 
land  without  impoverishing  it  in  any  respect.  Stated  as  a  question 
it  is,  '  Will  each  generation  have  the  land  as  rich  as  the  preceding  one  ? ' 
It  seems  a  simple  question,  and  yet  the  safety  and  the  lives  of  our 
children  and  our  children 's  children  will  depend  upon  the  answer.  The 
forests,  the  streams,  the  soil,  the  minerals,  and  all  the  other  natural 
elements  of  wealth  should  remain  as  nearly  as  possible  undiminished 
as  the  centuries  pass.  All  of  this  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  the  preservation  of  the  mineral  wealth. ' ' 

Cutter. 

The  Governor  of  New  Jersey. 

''A  lumber  famine  is  dangerously  near.  Steep  mountain  sides  are 
deforested  for  a  few  poor  years  of  farming,  and  then  abandoned,  and 
their  native  fertility  goes  to  choke  the  rivers  and  form  bars  in  every 
harbor  along  the  coast.  The  streams  themselves  become  inactive  and 
a  large  part  of  their  power  is  wasted.  The  ills  that  come  from  this 
condition  can  be  remedied  by  Government  action  alone,  but  that  action 
must  be  taken  now  or  we  shall  be  staggered  by  the  cost. ' ' 

Stokes. 

The  Governor  of  Oregon. 

' '  The  conservation  of  the  water  supply  is  absolutel}^  dependent  upon 
the  preservation  of  the  upland  forests.  Opposition  to  the  policy  comes 
not  from  those  interested  in  the  development  of  the  country  and  the 


—  16  — 

perpetuation  of  our  institutions,  but  from  the  predatory  classes,  who 
care  for  naught  but  temporary  gain. ' ' 

Chamberlain. 

The  Governor  of  Idaho. 

"We  have  built  here  a  great  nation,  without  a  thought  of  to-morrow. 
We  will  grow  still  greater,  even  if  we  follow  the  same  old  methods  that 
we  have  followed  in  the  past.  But  we  can  not  reach  our  full  share  of 
greatness  as  a  nation  unless,  before  it  is  too  late,  we  throw  safeguards 
around  those  resources  that  have  made  us  the  mightiest  nation  on  the 
earth,  so  that  they  can  be  preserved  and  protected,  that  they  may  be 
developed  to  the  greatest  extent  for  the  benefit  of  this  and  future  gen- 
erations. ' ' 

Gooding. 

The  Governor  of  New  York. 

' '  The  question  of  preserving  our  forests  is  of  vital  importance,  and  I 
am  most  anxious  that  all  proper  measures  to  this  end  shall  be  taken. 
*    *    *    I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  object. ' ' 

Hughes. 


Wasteful  lumbering.  Wreckage  of  a  Western  forest  after  logging.  The  fire 
has  already  begun  on  it.  What  a  boon  a  few  square  feet  of  this  ground 
would  be  even  now  to  many  a  family.  The  time  is  coming  when  every 
splinter  of  it  will  be  keenly  needed  ;  its  waste  bitterly  regretted.  Millions 
upon  millions  of  acres  like  this  go  up  in  smoke. 


—  17  — 

The  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

''Not  merely  the  lumber  supply,  but  water  power  and  water  supply 
are  alike  vitally  connected  with  this  movement,  and  no  State  can  afford 
to  ignore  it. "     *    #    * 

Guild. 

The  Governor  of  West  Virginia. 

' '  The  matter  is  of  such  urgent  importance  that  it  can  not  be  further 
delayed  without  great  detriment  to  the  best  interest  of  the  country. ' ' 

SWANSON. 
The  Governor  of  Connecticut. 

''I  believe  that  we  of  the  present  generation  owe  it  to  posterity  to 
conserve  our  natural  resources  in  this  direction. ' ' 

Woodruff. 

The  Governor  of  Maryland. 

* '  There  is  to  my  mind  no  waste  of  resources  more  appalling  than  the 
destruction  of  our  forest  wealth — wealth  that  came  to  us  by  inheritance 
with  the  soil." 

Warfield. 

The  Governor  of  Virginia. 

* '  Not  only  are  we  wasting  our  forests,  but  most  of  our  other  natural 
resources  as  well.  But  forest  preservation  seems  to  be  of  first  im- 
portance— indeed,  it  is  a  subject  of  pressing  importance." 

Dawson. 


2 NR 


—  18  — 


SOME  CURRENT  LITERATURE. 


THE  following  longer  selections  from  magazines,  addresses^ 
newspaper  articles,  will  give  more  complete  and  well 
rounded  views  of  the  conservation  idea  as  a  whole.  Why 
would  not  this  collection  be  just  the  thing  for  a  reading  circle 
or  an  improvement  club  to  use?  It  is  up  to  date,  interesting, 
and  vital  to  our  State,  to  our  Nation.  The  material  has  not 
before  been  brought  together.    It  has  cost  a  good  deal  of  labor. 

Is  it  not  strange  that  our  schools,  preparing  for  citizenship, 
do  not  take  up  in  some  way  this  Conservation  of  Resources,  so 
vital  to  every  one  of  us,  so  necessary  to  the  very  existence  of 
the  nation? 

Our  boys  and  girls  spend  hours  and  days  and  weeks  in  study- 
ing intently  the  virtues  and  the  defects  of  the  Articles  of 
Confederation,  dead  a  hundred  years!  But  they  can  not 
discover  in  their  school  that  men  are  throwing  away  and  giving 
away  the  land  and  the  water  upon  which  the  real  life  of  the 
nation  is  builded. 

They  toil  and  moil  at  length  over  the  animosities  of  the  Civil 
War,  which  were  better  forgotten;  but  they  do  not  learn  that 
their  birthrights  of  soil  are  being  swept  out  to  the  sea  and  that 
their  birthrights  in  water  are  being  seized  by  those  who  will 
thereby  become  their  masters  and  their  rulers  in  all  time  to 
come. 

Is  there  not  something  here  for  schools  to  gladly  learn  and 
gladly  teach  ? 


—  19  — 


WE  ARE  ALL  RESPONSIBLE. 

"When  expressing  our  indignation  at  the  wicked  waste  of  the  people's 
heritages  it  is  well  to  remember  that  it  is  the  people  who  are  to  blame 
for  it.  You  and  I  and  all  of  us  are  the  criminals,  not  merely  the  men 
and  the  corporations  who  have  so  largely  profited  by  the  wasted 
resources.  It  is  easy  to  work  up  wrath  and  blow  off  steam  about  them ; 
but  we  must  remember  that  they  have  played  the  game  according  to 
the  rules,  and  that  we,  the  people,  make  or  consent  to  the  rules  of  the 
game — the  laws.  The  big  boys  often  try  to  change  the  rules  and  use 
them  unfairly  doubtless,  as  in  smaller  games;  but  if  all  the  other 
children  attend  to  it,  take  an  interest  in  it,  stick  together,  they  can 
make  the  rules  right  and  keep  the  big  fellows  within  bounds. 

It  is  well  to  remember  this :  most  of  us,  if  we  could,  would  do  just 
what  the  "predatory  rich"  have  done. 

One  of  the  worst  things  that  have  been  done,  probably  the  very  worst, 
has  been  the  taking  away  of  the  timber  lands  from  the  people.  But 
how  has  this  been  done?  By  buying  out  small  owners  for  small  prices. 
Our  careless  and  reckless  law  gives  to  any  one  160  acres  of  timber  land 
if  he  or  she  will  make  oath  that  it  is  for  his  own  use,  not  to  be  used  for 
the  benefit  of  some  one  else.  In  my  travels  I  find  many  people,  nice 
people,  school  teachers,  ministers,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  locating  timber 
claims — and  selling  them  as  soon  as  title  is  complete,  for  a  few  hundred 
dollars — three  hundred,  five  hundred,  perhaps;  yet  the  timber  itself 
is  really  worth  many  thousands  of  dollars,  to  say  nothing  of  the  land  on 
which  it  stands. 

Thus,  for  an  insignificant  sum  for  our  own  selfish  immediate  use  do 
we  nice  people  sell  the  birthrights  of  our  children's  children.  Thus  the 
great  timber  corporations  acquire  empires  of  land  and  princely  fortunes 
in  timber.  Thus  does  our  country  lose  its  heritage  for  all  time.  Where- 
fore remember  that  we,  the  people,  have  our  share  of  responsibility  in 
this  thing.  We  accept  these  laws  and  help  to  make  them.  We  take 
a  small  share  of  the  swag  ourselves  when  we  can  get  it. 

The  reason  for  the  wasting  and  plundering  and  going  to  smash  of  this 
vast  and  splendid  estate  of  ours  is  not  hard  to  find.  It  is  from  a  simple 
and  natural  cause,  a  universal  law — hecause  we,  the  owners,  have 
neglected  it.  Any  property,  any  enterprise  goes  to  wreck  and  ruin  if  it 
is  not  attended  to,  guarded,  watched  over,  by  its  owners.  What  would 
happen  to  a  great  store  or  a  mill  or  a  mine  if  it  were  abandoned  to  whom- 
ever happened  along  ?  How  would  a  farm  prosper  if  none  of  its  owners 
took  the  trouble  to  look  after  it?    Why,  even  a  $500  house  in  a  little 


—  20  ^ 

village  will  soon  be  damaged  beyond  repair,  broken,  run  down,  carried 
away,  when  it  is  not  cared  for  by  its  owners !  And  who  gets  the  blame 
in  such  case  ?  Not  the  boys  who  throw  stones  through  the  windows  nor 
the  petty  thieves  who  carry  off  the  fence  for  kindling  wood — ^but  the 
people  who  own  it  and  are  responsible  for  it.    We  are  all  responsible. 

[E.  H.] 


TEACHING  CONSERVATION. 

But  how  can  a  teacher  teach  Conservation?  By  exuding  it  through  the  pores! 
If  it  gets  in  it  will  come  out! 

A  wise  teacher  will  find  a  hundred  ways  to  drop  good  ideas  into  the 
hearts  of  her  children. 

For  instance,  in  the  careful  use  of  the  school  supplies.  Economy  and 
wise  care  are  virtues  greatly  to  be  desired  in  all  our  citizenry.  The 
teacher  is  not  working  for  the  sake  of  saving  a  few  cents  for  the  school 
fund ;  but  for  the  habits  of  the  children,  their  way  of  looking  at  things, 
during  all  their  future  lives.  Carelessness,  extravagance,  recklessness, 
are  dangerous  to  the  nation.  The  difference  between  conservation  and 
reckless  waste  may  be  taught  in  the  use  of  such  a  common  thing  as 
paper,  for  example.  Indeed,  paper  is  really  one  of  our  national 
resources,  as  it  is  made  of  wood  pulp,  and  wood  pulp  is  made  from  trees. 
A  big  edition  of  a  Sunday  newspaper  requires  perhaps  a  dozen  acres 
of  woodland.  Every  sheet  of  paper,  every  desk,  every  box,  every 
splinter  of  wood  that  we  see  or  use,  represents  trees,  trees  that  were 
chopped  from  our  forests.  Every  one  of  our  eighty  million  people 
uses  more  than  seven  times  as  much  wood  per  year  as  do  the  people 
all  over  Europe.  Every  big  city  fire  destroys  a  great  and  splendid 
forest.  Millions  upon  millions  of  acres  of  woodland  continually  go 
into  the  ties  along  our  railroad  lines.  Countless  other  forests  are  rotting 
away  deep  under  ground  in  the  coal  mines  and  gold  mines. 

The  teacher  who  goes  into  the  subject  with  interest  himself  will  find 
no  lack  of  striking  and  interesting  and  valuable  things  to  pass  along 
to  his  flock;  things  that  point  to  civic  patriotism;  things  more  vital  to 
their  fatherland  than  the  waving  of  battle  flags  and  defiance  of  the 
foreign  foe !      [e.  h.] 


21  — 


THE  CONSERVATION  OF  OUR  NATURAL  RESOURCES. 

This  article  will  well  repay  thoughtful  reading.  It  is  by  Gifford  Pinchot,  the 
United  States  Forester,  and  was  delivered  as  an  address  to  the  National  Geo- 
graphic Society  a  few  months  ago.     Note  its  simplicity  and  its  strength. 

A  Story  With  a  Moral. 

The  conservation  of  our  natural  resources  is  a  subject  which  has 
received  little  attention  in  the  past;  but  the  facts  in  the  case  are  so 
simple,  the  principles  so  elementary,  and  our  duty  so  clear,  that  they 
might  be  fitly  presented  in  a  story  like  one  of  the  old  fairy  tales  that 
we  all  loved  when  we  were  boys  and  girls.  Such  a  story  would  run 
like  this : 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  young  man  who  had  been  given  a  great 
pi*)&perty  in  a  distant  region,  and  who  left  home  to  take  possession  of  it. 
When  he  reached  his  property  he  first  made  himself  acquainted  with  it. 
As  he  explored  it  and  studied  its  value  he  began  to  think  how  he  would 
make  his  living  out  of  it.  The  problem  was  not  a  hard  one.  He  found 
that  his  property  was  wonderfully  rich,  and  supplied  his  needs  at  the 
cost  of  far  less  exertion  than  he  would  have  had  to  make  at  home,  for 
it  was  a  fair  land,  well  watered,  well  timbered,  abounding  in  game  and 
fruits,  with  broad  meadows  for  cattle  and  horses  and  sheep,  and  with 
no  small  store  of  rare  and  curious  minerals  and  an  outcrop  of  excellent 
coal.  Life  was  easy,  and  he  lived  lavishly  and  joyously,  after  the  initial 
hard  work  of  moving  in  and  building  his  house  and  raising  his  first 
crops  was  over.  He  had  far  more  land  than  he  could  use,  far  more 
game,  and  what  he  lacked  he  was  able  to  buy  from  home  with  furs,  with 
timber,  with  minerals,  and  with  the  surplus  of  his  crops. 

By  and  by  he  saw  and  liked  a  girl,  and  finally  married  her.  Together 
they  prospered  on  the  property,  which  seemed  too  rich  to  make  it  neces- 
sary for  them  to  trouble  about  the  future.  Game  was  still  plenty,  though 
less  so  than  at  first ;  the  timber,  though  growing  less,  was  still  abundant 
enough  to  last  longer  than  they  could  hope  to  live;  by  breaking  new 
land  they  could  always  count  on  marvelous  crops ;  the  coal  was  a  little 
harder  to  get  at,  but  still  close  to  the  surface,  and  besides  the  man  only 
dug  out  the  easiest  to  reach,  and  when  the  earth  began  to  cave  in  he 
merely  started  again  at  a  new  place.  His  stock,  grazing  on  the  meadows, 
had  trampled  out  some  of  the  grass,  but  there  was  still  no  lack.  That 
some  day  strangers  would  possess  their  property  when  they  had  done 
with  it,  and  would  find  it  somewhat  run  down,  did  not  trouble  these  two 
good  people  at  all. 

But  children  came  to  them  with  the  years,  and  by  and  by  these 
children  began  to  grow  up.  Then  the  point  of  view  of  the  man  and  his 
wife  changed.  They  wanted  to  see  their  sons  and  daughters  provided 
for  and  settled  on  this  property  of  theirs,  and  they  began  to  see  that 


—  22  — 

what  was  enough  and  to  spare  for  them  would  not  support  all  their 
children  in  the  same  comfort  unless  they  themselves  used  it  with  better 
foresight.  Through  thinking  of  their  children  they  were  led  to  live 
more  in  the  future.  r 

They  looked  forward  and  said  to  themselves:  "Not  only  must  we 
meet  our  own  needs  from  this  property,  but  we  must  see  to  it  that  our 
children  come  in  for  their  fair  share  of  it;  so  that  after  a  while  the 
happiness  we  have  had  here  may  be  carried  on  to  them. ' '  So  the  family 
established  itself.  The  man  became  respected,  and  his  children  grew 
up  healthy  and  happy  around  him;  and  when  in  the  fullness  of  time 
he  passed  away  and  his  children  took  the  place  in  which  he  had  stood, 
because  of  his  foresight  and  care  they  enjoyed  the  same  kind  of  pros- 
perity he  had  enjoyed. 

It  is  a  perfectly  simple  story;  we  all  of  us  can  name  scores  of  men 
who  have  done  this  same  thing.  The  men  and  the  women  who  do  it 
are  not  famous,  are  not  regarded  as  remarkable  in  any  way;  they  are 
simply  good,  everyday,  average  citizens,  who  are  carrying  out  the  duties 
of  the  average  citizen. 

What  Have  We  Done  With  Our  National  Resources? 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  young  nation  which  left  its  home  and 
moved  on  to  a  new  continent.  As  soon  as  the  people  who  formed  the 
first  settlements  began  to  examine  the  value  and  condition  of  this  new 
continent,  they  found  it  marvelously  rich  in  every  possible  resource. 
The  forests  were  so  vast  that,  in  the  early  days,  they  were  not  a  blessing, 
but  a  hindrance.  The  soil  was  so  rich  and  there  was  so  much  of  it  that 
they  were  able  at  first  only  to  cultivate  the  edges  of  their  great  property. 
It  was  quite  plain  to  these  people  in  the  early  times  that,  however  much 
land  they  might  cover,  however  much  they  might  waste,  there  was 
always  going  to  be  plenty  left.  As  time  went  on  they  discovered  greater 
and  greater  resources.  They  found  wonderfully  rich  deposits  of 
metallic  ore;  great  oil  and  gas  fields,  and  vast  stretches  of  the  richest 
bituminous  and  anthracite  coal  lands;  noble  rivers  flowing  through 
broad  expanses  of  meadow ;  rich  alluvial  prairies ;  great  plains  covered 
with  countless  herds  of  buffalo  and  antelope;  mountains  filled  with 
minerals;  and  everywhere  opportunities  richer  than  any  nation  had 
ever  found  elsewhere  before. 

They  entered  into  this  vast  possession  and  began  to  use  it.  They 
did  not  need  to  think  much  about  how  they  used  their  coal,  or  oil,  or 
timber,  or  water — they  would  last — and  they  began  to  encroach  on  the 
supply  with  freedom  and  in  confidence  that  there  would  always  be 
plenty.  The  only  word  with  which  they  described  what  they  had,  when 
they  talked  about  it,  was  the  word  ' '  inexhaustible. ' ' 


—  23  — 

Let  us  see  for  a  moment  what  the  course  of  development  of  this 
young  nation  was.  First  of  all  they  needed  men  and  women  to  settle 
on  the  land  and  bring  up  children  and  have  a  stake  in  the  country. 
That  was  absolutely  necessary  before  there  could  develop  the  great 
nation  which  some  of  them  saw  ahead.  As  the  population  spread  there 
arose  a  need  that  great  systems  of  transportation  should  be  built  to  knit 
the  country  together  and  provide  for  the  interchange  of  its  products. 
These  railroads  called  for  iron,  coal,  and  timber  in  great  quantities. 
Then  began  an  unprecedented  demand  upon  the  forests.  They  could 
not  build  those  transcontinental  railroad  lines  without  millions  upon 
millions  of  railroad  ties  cut  from  the  forests  of  the  country ;  and  they 
could  not  mine  the  iron  and  coal  except  as  the  forests  gave  them  the 
means  of  timbering  their  mines,  transporting  the  ore,  and  disposing 
of  the  finished  product.  The  whole  civilization  which  they  built  up 
was  conditioned  on  iron,  coal,  and  timber.  As  they  developed  their 
continent,  richer  than  any  other,  from  the  east  coast  to  the  west,  new 
resources  became  revealed  to  them,  new  interests  took  possession  of 
them,  and  they  used  the  old  resources  in  new  ways.  In  the  East,  the 
rivers  meant  to  them  only  means  of  transportation;  in  the  West  they 
began  to  see  that  the  rivers  meant  first  of  all  crops ;  that  they  must  put 
the  rivers  on  the  land  by  irrigation  before  they  could  grow  wheat, 
alfalfa,  fruits,  sugar  beets,  and  other  crops  that  make  the  West  rich. 
They  found  that  to  feed  the  vast  population  which  had  grown  up  in  the 
East  they  must  have  the  vast  ranges  of  the  West  to  grow  meat.  They 
found  that  the  resources  of  soil  and  water  which  produced  the  wheat, 
the  cotton,  and  the  meat — of  iron  and  coal,  and  of  timber,  together 
made  up  the  working  capital  of  a  great  nation,  and  that  the  nation 
cdlild  not  grow  unless  it  had  all  of  these  things.  In  taking  possession 
of  them  our  nation  used  with  greater  effectiveness,  greater  energy  and 
enterprise,  than  any  other  nation  had  ever  shown  before.  Nothing  like 
our  growth,  nothing  like  our  wealth,  nothing  like  the  average  happiness 
of  our  people  can  be  found  elsewhere ;  and  the  fundamental  reason  for 
this  is,  on  the  one  side,  the  vast  natural  resources  which  we  had  at 
hand,  and  on  the  other  side  the  character,  ability,  and  power  of  our 
people. 

Now  what  have  we  done  with  these  resources  which  have  made  us 
great,  and  what  is  the  present  condition  in  which  this  marvelously 
vigorous  nation  of  ours  finds  itself?  The  keynote  of  our  times  is 
"development."  Every  man  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  looks 
to  the  development  of  the  natural  resources  to  produce  the  advantages 
and  the  opportunities  he  wants  for  his  neighbors  and  his  friends. 
Any  one  who  questions  the  wisdom  of  any  of  the  methods  we  are  using 
in  bringing  that  development  to  pass,  because  he  believes  we  are  making 
mistakes  that  will  be  expensive  later  on,  is  in  danger  of  being  considered 


—  24  — 

an  enemy  to  prosperity.  He  is  in  danger  of  having  it  thought  of  him 
that  he  does  not  take  pride  in  our  great  achievements,  that  he  is  not  a 
very  good  American.  But  in  reality  it  is  no  sign  that  a  man  lacks  pride 
in  the  United  States  and  the  wonderful  things  our  people  have  done  in 
developing  this  great  country  because  he  wants  to  see  that  development 
go  on  indefinitely.  On  the  contrary,  real  patriotism  and  pride  in  our 
country  make  it  the  first  of  all  duties  to  see  that  our  nation  shall  con- 
tinue to  prosper.  In  sober  truth,  we  have  brought  ourselves  into  a 
condition  in  which  the  very  serious  diminution  of  some  of  our  most 
necessary  resources  is  upon  us. 

What  We  Face. 

Forest  Resources. — A  third  of  the  land  surface  of  this  country  was 
originally  covered  with  what  were,  all  in  all,  the  most  magnificent 
forests  of  the  globe — a  million  square  miles  of  timberland.  In  the 
short  time,  as  time  counts  in  the  life  of  nations,  we  have  been  here  we 
have  all  but  reached  the  end  of  these  forests.  We  thought  it  unim- 
portant until  lately  that  we  have  been  destroying  by  fire  as  much  timber 
as  we  have  used.  But  we  have  now  reached  the  point  where  the  growth 
of  our  forests  is  but  one  third  of  the  annual  cut,  while  we  have  in  store 
timber  enough  for  only  twenty  or  thirty  years  at  our  present  rate  of 
use.  This  wonderful  development,  which  would  have  been  impossible 
without  the  cutting  of  the  forests,  has  brought  us  where  we  really  face 
their  exhaustion  within  the  present  generation.  And  we  use  five  or  six 
times  as  much  timber  per  capita  as  the  European  nations.  A  timber 
famine  will  touch  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  all  the  land ;  it  will 
affect  the  daily  life  of  every  one  of  us;  and  yet  without  consideration, 
without  forecast,  and  without  foresight,  we  have  placed  ourselves,  not 
deliberately,  but  thoughtlessly,  in  a  position  where  a  timber  famine  is 
one  of  the  inevitable  events  of  our  near  future. 

Canada  can  not  supply  us,  for  she  will  need  her  timber  herself. 
Siberia  can  not  supply  us,  for  the  timber  is  too  far  from  water  trans- 
portation. South  America  can  not  supply  us,  because  the  timbers  of 
that  vast  continent  are  of  a  different  character  from  those  we  use  and 
ill  adapted  to  our  need.  We  must  suffer  because  we  have  carelessly 
wasted  the  forest,  this  great  fundamental  condition  of  success.  It  is 
impossible  to  repair  the  damage  in  time  to  escape  much  suffering, 
although  not  too  late  to  work  hard  to  reduce  it  as  much  as  we  can. 

Minerals,  Oil,  and  Natural  Gas. — But  forests  only  begin  the  story  of 
our  impaired  capital.  Our  anthracite  coals  are  said  to  be  in  danger  of 
exhaustion  in  fifty  years,  and  our  bituminous  coals  in  the  beginning  of 
the  next  century;  some  of  our  older  oil  fields  are  already  exhausted; 
the  natural  gas  has  been  wasted,  burning  night  and  day  in  many  towns 
until  the  supply  has  failed.     Our  iron  deposits  grow  less  each  year. 


—  25  — 

Our  ranges  in  the  West,  from  which  we  first  drove  the  buffalo  to  cover 
them  again  with  cattle  and  sheep,  are  capable  of  supporting  but  about 
one  half  what  they  could  under  intelligent  management,  and  the  price 
of  beef  is  raised  accordingly.  Nearly  every  one  of  our  wonderful 
resources  we  have  used  without  reasonable  foresight  or  reasonable  care, 
and  as  each  becomes  exhausted  a  heavier  burden  of  hardship  will  be 
laid  upon  us  as  a  people. 

Now  what  is  our  remedy?  The  remedy  is  the  perfectly  simple  one 
of  common  sense  applied  to  national  affairs  as  common  sense  is  applied 
to  personal  affairs.  This  is  no  abstruse  or  difficult  question.  We  have 
hitherto  as  a  nation  taken  the  same  course  as  did  at  first  the  young  man 
who  came  into  possession  of  his  new  property.    It  is  time  for  a  change. 

It  is  true  that  some  natural  resources  renew  themselves  while  others 
do  not.  Our  mineral  resources  once  gone  are  gone  forever.  It  may 
appear,  therefore,  at  first  thought  that  conservation  does  not  apply  to 
them  since  they  can  be  used  only  once.  But  this  is  far  from  being  the 
fact.  Methods  of  coal  mining,  for  instance,  have  been  permitted  in 
this  country  which  take  out  on  the  average  but  half  of  the  coal.  Then 
in  a  short  time  the  roof  sinks  in  on  the  other  half,  which  thereafter  can 
never  be  mined.  Oil  and  natural  gas  also  have  been  and  are  being 
exploited  with  great  waste  and  as  though  there  never  could  be  an  end 
to  them.  The  forests  we  can  replace  at  great  cost  and  with  an  interval 
of  suffering. 

Soil  Waste. — The  soil  which  is  washed  from  the  surface  of  our  farms 
every  year  to  the  amount  of  a  billion  tons,  making,  with  the  further  loss 
of  fertilizing  elements  carried  away  in  solution,  the  heaviest  tax  the 
farmer  has  to  pay,  may  in  the  course  of  centuries  be  replaced  by  the 
chemical  disintegration  of  the  rock;  but  it  is  decidedly  wiser  to  keep 
what  we  have  by  careful  methods  of  cultivation.  We  may  very  profit- 
ably stop  putting  our  farms  into  our  streams,  to  be  dug  out  at  great 
expense  through  river  and  harbor  appropriations.  Fertile  soil  is  not 
wanted  in  the  bed  of  a  stream,  and  it  is  wanted  on  the  surface  of  the 
farms  and  the  forest-covered  slopes  of  the  mountains.  Yet  we  spend 
millions  upon  millions  of  dollars  every  year  removing  from  our  rivers 
what  ought  never  to  have  got  into  them. 

Waste  Through  Piecemeal  Planning. 

Besides  exhausting  the  unrenewable  and  impairing  the  renewable 
resources,  we  have  left  unused  vast  resources  which  are  capable  of 
adding  enormously  to  the  wealth  of  the  country.  Our  streams  have 
been  used  in  the  West  mainlj^  for  irrigation  and  in  the  East  mainly  for 
navigation.  It  has  not  occurred  to  us  that  a  stream  is  valuable,  not 
merely  for  one,  but  for  a  considerable  number  of  uses ;  that  these  uses 
are  not  mutually  exclusive,  and  that  to  obtain  the  full  benefit  of  Avhat 


—  26  — 

the  stream  can  do  for  us  we  should  plan  to  develop  all  its  uses  together. 
For  example,  when  the  National  Government  builds  dams  for  naviga- 
tion on  streams,  it  has  often  disregarded  the  possible  use,  for  power, 
of  the  water  that  flows  over  those  dams.  Engineers  say  that  many 
hundred  thousand  horsepower  are  going  to  waste  over  Government  dams 
in  this  way.  Since  a  fair  price  for  power,  where  it  is  in  demand,  is 
from  $20  to  $80  per  horsepower  annually,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
Government  has  here,  developed,  yet  lying  idle,  a  resource  capable, 
under  the  right  conditions,  of  adding  enormously  to  the  national  wealth. 
So  also  in  developing  the  western  streams  for  irrigation,  in  many  places 
irrigation  and  power  might  be  made  to  go  hand  in  hand. 

Danger  of  Monopoly. 

If  the  public  does  not  see  to  it  that  the  control  of  water  power  is 
kept  in  the  hands  of  the  public,  we  are  certain  in  the  near  future  to 
find  ourselves  in  the  grip  of  those  who  will  be  able  to  control,  with  a 
monopoly  absolutely  without  parallel  in  the  past,  the  daily  life  of  our 
people.  Let  us  suppose  a  man  in  a  western  town,  in  a  region  without 
coal,  rising  on  a  cold  morning,  a  few  years  hence,  when  invention  and 
enterprise  have  brought  to  pass  the  things  which  we  can  already  foresee 
as  coming  in  the  application  of  electricity.  He  turns  on  the  electric 
light  made  from  water  power;  his  breakfast  is  cooked  on  an  electric 
stove  heated  by  the  power  of  the  streams;  his  morning  newspaper  is 
printed  on  a  press  moved  by  electricity  from  the  streams;  he  goes  to 
his  office  in  a  trolley  car  moved  by  electricity  from  the  same  source. 
The  desk  upon  which  he  writes  his  letters,  the  merchandise  which  he 
sells,  the  crops  which  he  raises,  will  have  been  brought  to  him  or  will 
be  taken  to  market  from  him  in  a  freight  car  moved  by  electricity.  His 
wife  will  run  her  sewing  machine  or  her  churn,  and  factories  will  turn 
their  shafts  and  wheels,  by  the  same  power.  In  every  activity  of  his 
life  that  man  and  his  family  and  his  neighbors  will  have  to  pay  toll  to 
those  who  have  been  able  to  monopolize  the  great  motive  power  of 
electricity  made  from  water  power,  if  that  monopoly  is  allowed  to 
become  established.  Never  before  in  the  history  of  this  or  any  other 
free  country  has  there  existed  the  possibility  of  such  intimate  daily 
friction  between  a  monopoly  and  the  life  of  the  average  citizen. 

It  has  not  yet  occurred  to  many  of  our  people  that  this  great  power 
should  be  conserved  for  the  use  of  the  public.  "We  have  regarded  it  as 
a  thing  to  be  given  away  to  any  man  who  would  take  it.  We  have 
carried  over  our  point  of  view  derived  from  the  early  conditions  when 
it  was  a  God-send  to  have  a  man  come  into  the  country  to  develop 
power  and  we  were  willing  to  give  him  anything  to  induce  him  to  come. 
We  have  carried  over  that  point  of  view  into  a  time  when  the  dread  of 


—  27  — 

monopoly  of  this  kind  ought  to  be  in  the  mind  of  the  average  man 
everywhere.  That  is  an  instance  of  a  resource  neglected  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  public. 

A  New  Point  of  View. 

But  this  is  a  time  to  consider  not  one  resource,  but  all  resources 
together.  Alreadj^  here  and  there  small  associations  of  citizens  have 
become  possessed  of  certain  facts,  and  have  begun  to  work  at  certain 
sides  of  what  is  fundamentally  one  great  problem.  We  have  a  drainage 
association,  whose  object  is  to  make  habitable  millions  upon  millions  of 
acres  now  lying  waste  in  swamps  all  over  the  country,  but  capable  of 
supporting  in  comfort  millions  of  people.  We  have  forestry  associa- 
tions, waterway'  associations,  irrigation  associations,  associations  of 
many  kinds  touching  this  problem  of  conservation  at  different  points, 
each  endeavoring  to  benefit  the  common  weal  along  its  own  line,  but 
each  interested  only  in  its  own  particular  piece  of  the  work  and 
unaware  that  it  is  attacking  the  outside,  not  the  heart  of  the  problem, 
Now  a  greater  thing  is  opening  out  in  the  sight  of  the  people.  This 
problem  of  the  conservation  of  natural  resources  is  a  single  question. 
Each  of  these  various  bodies  that  have  been  working  at  different  phases 
of  it  must  come  together  on  conservation  as  a  common  platform.  By 
the  joining  of  these  units  we  shall  have  a  mass  of  intelligent,  interested, 
public-spirited  citizens  anxiaus  to  adopt  a  new  point  of  view  about  this 
country  of  ours. 

That  is  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter — a  new  point  of  view  about  our 
country.  We  have  been  so  busy  getting  rich,  developing  and  growing, 
so  proud  of  our  growth,  that  we  have  let  things  go  on  until  some 
intolerable  abuse  has  driven  us  to  immediate  action.  It  is  time  that  we 
put  an  end  to  this  kind  of  opportunism,  of  mere  drifting.  We  must 
take  the  point  of  view  taken  by  the  average  prudent  business  man,  or 
man  in  any  walk  of  life  who  has  property  and  is  interested  in  it.  What 
the  average  man  does  in  his  own  affairs  is  to  foresee  trouble  and  avoid  it 
if  he  can.  What  this  nation  of  ours  is  doing  in  this  fundamental 
matter  of  natural  resources  is  to  run  right  into  trouble  head  down  and 
eyes  shut,  and  so  make  that  trouble  inevitable  before  taking  any  step 
to  prevent  it.  But  it  should  not  take  long  to  reach  the  stage  of  national 
thought  where  we  shall  deliberately  plan  to  avoid  the  difficulties  which 
can  be  foreseen,  if  only  we  can  bring  together  all  who  have  already 
begun  to  concern  themselves  with  one  or  another  aspect  of  the  conserva- 
tion problem. 

The  Problem  Before  Us. 

This  nation  has,  on  the  continent  of  North  America,  three  and  a  half 
million  square  miles.  What  shall  we  do  with  it?  How  can  we  make 
ourselves  and  our  children  happiest,  most  vigorous  and  efficient,  and  our 


—  28  — 

civilization  the  highest  and  most  influential,  as  we  use  that  splendid 
heritage?  Ought  not  the  nation  to  undertake  to  answer  that  question 
in  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  prudence,  and  foresight?  There  is  reason  to 
think  we  are  on  the  verge  of  doing  this  very  thing.  We  are  on  the 
verge  of  saying  to  ourselves:  ''Let  us  do  the  best  we  can  with  our 
natural  resources;  let  us  find  out  what  we  have,  how  they  can  best  be 
used,  how  they  can  best  be  conserved.  Above  all,  let  us  have  clearly  in 
mind  the  great  and  fundamental  fact  that  this  nation  will  not  end  in 
the  year  1950,  or  a  hundred  years  after  that,  or  five  hundred  years 
after  that;  that  we  are  just  beginning  a  national  history  the  end  of 
which  we  can  not  see,  since  we  are  still  young."  In  truth  we  are  at  a 
critical  point  in  that  history.  We  may  pass  on  along  the  line  we  have 
been  following,  exhaust  our  natural  resources,  continue  to  let  the  future 
take  care  of  itself;  or  we  may  do  the  simple,  obvious,  common-sense 
thing  in  the  interest  of  the  nation,  just  as  each  of  us  does  in  his  own 
personal  affairs. 

On  the  way  in  which  we  decide  to  handle  this  great  possession  which 
has  been  given  us,  on  the  turning  which  we  take  now,  hangs  the  welfare 
of  those  who  are  to  come  after  us.  Whatever  success  we  may  have  in 
any  other  line  of  national  endeavor,  whether  we  regulate  trusts  prop- 
erly, whether  we  control  our  great  public  service  corporations  as  we 
should,  whether  capital  and  labor  adjust  their  relations  in  the  best 
manner  or  not — whatever  we  may  do  with  all  these  and  other  such 
questions,  behind  and  below  them  all  is  this  fundamental  problem.  Are 
we  going  to  protect  our  springs  of  prosperity,  our  sources  of  well-being, 
our  raw  material  of  industry  and  commerce,  and  employer  of  capital 
and  labor  combined;  or  are  we  going  to  dissipate  them?  According  as 
we  accept  or  ignore  our  responsibility  as  trustees  of  the  nation's  welfare, 
our  children  and  our  children 's  children  for  uncounted  generations  will 
call  us  blessed,  or  will  lay  their  suffering  at  our  doors.  We  shall  decide 
whether  their  lives,  on  the  average,  are  to  be  lived  in  a  flourishing 
country,  full  of  all  that  helps  to  make  men  comfortable,  happy,  strong, 
and  effective,  or  whether  their  lives  are  to  be  lived  in  a  country  like  the 
miserable  outworn  regions  of  the  earth  which  other  nations  before  us 
have  possessed  without  foresight  and  turned  into  hopeless  deserts.  We 
are  no  more  exempt  from  the  operation  of  natural  laws  than  are  the 
people  of  any  other  part-  of  the  world.  When  the  facts  are  squarely 
before  us,  when  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  at  stake  is  clearly  before 
our  people  it  will  surely  be  decided  aright. 


29 


CULTIVATE  THE  FORESTS. 

This  is  a  clipping  from  a  fine  article  upon  the  STATESMANSHIP  OF 
FORESTRY  by  Author  W.  Page  in  the  World's  Work  Magazine  for  January, 
1908.     A  number  of  the  pictures  in  this  volume  are  from  the  same  source. 

Many  people  consider  the  approaching  timber  famine  with  the  same 
feeling  of  regret  and  helplessness  with  which  they  listen  to  the  story  of 
the  extinction  of  the  buffalo.  They  feel  that  both  are  wild  things  which 
must  inevitably  perish  before  the  advance  of  civilization.  But  the 
forests,  unlike  the  buffalo,  thrive  in  captivity.  A  large  proportion  of 
the  trees  in  a  wild  forest  are  not  best  suited  to  our  use.  They  are  of 
the  wrong  species — like  weeds  in  a  garden — are  too  old  or  crooked  and 
have  a  variety  of  other  blemishes ;  and,  while  doing  us  little  good  them- 
selves, they  prevent  the  growth  of  better  timber.  To  destroy  all  the 
original  growth  and  then  plant  a  new  forest  on  the  devastated  area 
seems  illogical,  but  it  is  neither  impractical  nor  unprofitable,  as  the 
experience  of  Germany  and  experiments  in  this  country  show.  It  is 
much  easier,  however,  and  more  profitable,  gradually  to  turn  the  wild 
forests  into  cultivated  ones. 

The  French  began  to  do  this  in  the  fourteenth  century.  *  *  * 
France,  as  thickly  settled  as  it  is,  has  maintained  its  cultivated  timber 
for  five  hundred  years,  while  the  West  with  its  scattered  population  is 
about  to  make  an  end  of  its  wild  forests  in  seventy-five  years.  In  con- 
trast to  the  forestry  conditions  of  France  are  those  of  southern  Tunis. 
It  was  once  a  very  fertile  country,  but  the  Arab  conquest  destroyed 
all  the  trees  and  now  the  ruins  of  its  old  capital,  Suffetula,  stand  in  an 
uninhabitable  desert.  "Not  long  after  the  conquest,"  says  M.  Jusse- 
raud,  "an  Arab  chronicler  recalled  in  his  book  the  former  times  of 
prosperity  and  added :  '  But  in  those  days,  one  could  walk  from  Tripoli 
to  Tunis  in  the  shade.'  " 


CONFESSION  TO  NEXT  GENERATION. 

Clipping  from  a  graduating  address  to  the  Fresno  High  School  by  Dr. 
Frederic  Burk. 

"We  dislike  to  go  on  with  these  embarrassmg  confessions,  but  you 
will  learn  the  whole  wretched  story  yourselves  sometime,  and  we  may 
as  well  tell  you.  As  for  the  coal  and  iron,  our  fathers  left  us  enough 
to  last  for  two  or  three  thousand  years  if  it  had  been  economically 
mined  according  to  some  system  established  by  law.  We  regret  to  tell 
you,  upon  the  authority  of  Andrew  Carnegie  and  John  Mitchell,  that 
we  Ve  wasted  in  getting  out  what  we  could  use  what  should  have  lasted 
eighteen  hundred  or  two  thousand  years.     The  coal  may  hold  out 


—  30  — 

another  two  hundred  years  and  the  iron  one  hundred  years,  but  both 
will  come  high  in  your  time.  We  wish  we  did  not  have  to  mention  the 
oil  and  the  natural  gas,  but  w^e  may  as  well  tell  you  that  we've  sucked 
them  out  of  the  earth  almost  completely  and  wasted  them. 

Dear  next  generation,  such  is  part  of  the  shameful  explanation  truth 
compels  us  to  make  to  you  concerning  the  waste  and  loss  of  your  patri- 
mony. We've  skimmed  the  cream  and  have  led  jolly  lives — we  do 
sincerely  hope  you  like  skimmed  milk,  and  little  of  it.  When  you  are 
shivering  with  the  cold  in  a  coalless  country,  when  you  are  nursing  one 
blade  of  grass  to  grow  for  you  w^here  two  grew  for  us,  when  you  have 
ceased  automobiling  on  account  of  the  high  price  of  oil,  then  you'll, 
remember  us  in  our  riotous  plenty.  Don't  be  too  angry  with  us.  We 
robbed  you.  We  took  the  bread  out  of  your  mouths,  you  our  babes,  and 
fed  it  to  the  vultures  w^ho  were  fattening  upon  our  national  dishonor. 
But  our  sins  have  been  the  sins  of  ignorance  rather  than  of  willfulness. 
Your  fathers  were  happy,  devil-may-care  fellows,  whose  courage,  as 
war  patriots,  you  must  in  justice  honor,  but  who  never  had  any  com- 
prehension of  the  meaning  of  a  civil  patriot  nor  the  slightest  realization 
that  it  required  any  of  the  qualities  of  courage,  self-sacrifice  for  the 
common  good,  and  intelligence  which  in  war  patriotism  we  have  exem- 
plified." 

OUR  WATER  LAWS. 

Pointed  Statement  from  a  letter  by  Allison  Ware,  of  the  San  Francisco  State 
Normal  School. 

•  "Worst  of  all,  the  water  running  in  our  streams  has  been  so  care- 
lessly handled  b}^  our  laws,  (patterned  as  they  are  after  the  laws  of 
England,  where  water  is  a  pest  and  the  only  thought  is  to  get  it  oif  the 
place  as  quickly  as  possible,)  that  most  of  it  is  now  in  private  owner- 
ship, much  of  it  many  times  over,  with  results  that  have  produced  wide- 
spread discomfort  and  that  clearly  throttle  the  growth  of  the  State  as 
a  land  of  farming. 

A  few  things,  it  seems  to  me,  the  people  of  California  must  speedily 
come  to  understand.  First,  the  wonderful  value  of  water;  what  it 
means  to  the  farmer,  to  the  manufacturer,  to  the  main  sources  of  wealth 
of  all  sorts.  Second,  the  endless  litigation,  fearful  waste  of  water  wealth, 
harsh  water-lordism,  an  uneconomic  application  of  streams  to  produc- 
tion ;  all  the  results  of  our  foolish  laws.  Third,  that  there  is  a  remedy, 
partial  because  we  have  been  slow  to  seek  it,  but  still  a  remedy  that 
will  save  to  the  future  the  possibility  of  sustaining  an  agricultural 
community  of  two  million  prosperous  homes  in  California. 

As  to  this  great  subject  of  water  in  relation  to  agriculture  in  Cali- 
fornia, Bulletin  100,  Department  of  Agriculture,  contains  the  whole 
story  and  shows  us  our  tardy  remedy." 


31  — 


LAST  OF  THE  BIG  TREES. 

Extracts  from  a  notable  article  in  Collier's  Weekly  under  the  above  title  by 
Arthur  Ruhl.  Doubtless  a  good  deal  of  this  will  seem  merely  sentimental  to  a 
hard-headed  business  man  who  deals  in  trees  and  lumber.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
well  to  remember  that  the  mightiest  things  are  started  by  sentiments.  Every 
great  movement  that  has  affected  the  destinies  of  mankind  had  its  beginning  in 
a  mere  sentiment  that  somehow  found  lodgment  in  some  one's  heart.  The 
wise  man  barkens  carefully  to  the  drift  of  sentiment. 

They  rise  up  two  hundred,  two  hundred  and  fifty,  three  hundred  feet 
sometimes,  the  trunks  bare  of  branches  for  seventy-five  or  a  hundred 
feet,  fluted,  gray-brown  columns  like  pillars  of  stone.  Far  overhead, 
the  delicate  tracery  of  their  foliage  weaves  a  roof  which  shuts  out  the 
direct  sunlight  and  gives  to  everything  below  the  soft  twilight  radiance 
of  a  cathedral.     Like  a  Gothic  cathedral,  indeed,  is  the  natural  aisle 


""  '*  >*\ifc  s»  'm 

,  m 

Kedwutnl  monarch  on  the  way  to  the  mill. 

with  the  fluted,  columnar  trunks  rising  side  by  side  toward  the  moun- 
tain background,  the  mellowed  light  filtering  through  the  arching  roof 
far  above. 

Even  the  curious  fluted  trunks  and  the  color — a  cinnamon  turned 
stone-gray  by  age  and  weather— seems  exotic  and  to  belong  to  an  older 
age,  when  strange  and  monstrous  animals  roamed  the  forests.  And 
well  they  may  look  so,  for  they — and  more  especially  their  near  rela- 
tives, the  giant  Sequoias  of  the  Sierras — are  the  oldest  living  things  in 
our  world.  The  latter  have  conquered  fire  and  snow  and  the  other* 
enemies  that  have  attacked  them  through  the  centuries,  and  stood  there, 
lofty  and  silent  and  serene,  while  wars  have  raged  and  been  forgotten 
and  religions  grown  up  and  fallen  to  decay.  The  redwoods  proper,  as 
these  trees  in  the  Bohemian  grove  are  called,  are  not  quite  so  ancient, 
but  they  were  mighty  trees,  at  any  rate,  before  the  Roman  Empire  fell, 
and  they  and  their  brothers  may  still  be  standing  when  the  solitary 
New  Zealander  looks  upon  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's — those  at  least  which 
haven't  been  cut  up  into  fenceposts  and  shingles. 


—  32  — 

To  an  outsider,  the  spell  they  cast  necessarily  overshadows  the  doings 
of  the  little  humans  playing  at  their  feet.  In  the  cool,  fragrant  interior 
of  the  grove,  the  heatic  bustle  of  the  ordinary  world  seems  trifling  and 
unimportant.  Voices  come  pleasantly  across  the  great  spaces ;  even  the 
humor  of  the  street,  provided  it  has  a  basis  in  reality,  is  mellowed  and 
enriched  and  merged  into  the  region  of  art.  The  grove  becomes  a  world 
in  itself — a  more  radiant  world;  you  walk  out  into  the  open  and  are 
conscious  of  leaving  some  enchantment  behind,  of  entering  a  more 
difficult,  harsher,  more  material  universe.  Voices  sound  as  from  very 
far  away  through  the  trees,  men  lounging  in  groups  here  and  there 
are  listening  and  laughing  carelessly — it  is  as  though  the  blessings  of 


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A  redwood  forest  in  California  in  its  natural  state.     Observe  the  shrubs 
and  ferns  that  flourish  in  the  cool  aisles  of  the  woodland. 


humor  and  grace  and  happy  insight  belonged  to  all  who  breathed 
that  air. 

An  Easterner,  a  young  poet  and  playwright,  was  a  guest  at  the  camp. 
He  had  never  been  West  before,  never  seen  the  big  trees.  And  it  was 
into  this  pagan  temple  that  he  was  led.  The  day  before,  he  and  some 
of  his  friends  went  to  another  forest  nearby,  the  Armstrong  grove. 
Here  were  the  same  trees,  only  a  little  wilder,  with  more  of  the  natural 
undergrowth  between.  And  that  same  day,  in  a  newspaper,  he  read 
that  the  Armstrong  grove  had  been  sold  to  a  lumber  company.  It  was 
about  midnight  that  night  when  I  first  caught  sight  of  him  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  circle  that  surrounded  the  huge  club  campfire.  He 
came  over  to  our  side.  He  was  like  some  one  who  had  just  seen  innocent 
men  condemned  to  death  and  knew  that  if  he  could  not  get  help  they 
would  be  executed  the  next  morning.    His  voice  shook  as  he  spoke. 

""Why,  I've  seen  them,"  he  said.    ''They  are  all  numbered— 61-73-87 


—  33  — 

— ready  to  cut.  They  are  just  like  these" — he  motioned  upward  where 
the  dark  roof  of  the  forest  closed  in  far  above  the  light  of  the  fire. 
"And  they're  going  to  cut  them  down.  Why,  it  seemed  to  me  when 
I  saw  those  numbers — you  go  over  to-morrow  morning  and  you'll 
understand — if  a  man  could  only  prevent  that  destruction,  could  only 
save  those  trees  i    *    =*    * " 

The  Giant  Tree  proper  lives  only  in  the  thin,  dry  air  of  the  Sierras, 
rarely  below  5,000  feet  altitude,  climbing  thence  up  to  the  8,000-foot 
level  and  even  higher,  so  that  it  may  look,  with  little  hindrance,  to  the 
bare  peaks  and  the  glaciers  above.  It  is  found  in  much  less  homo- 
geneous forests  than  the  redwood,  sharing  the  dominion  of  these  sunny 
plateaus  with  mighty  sugar  and  yellow  pines   and  spruces   and  firs. 


Here    is    the    redwood    forest    after    it    has    been    "developed"    by    our 
wasteful  methods. 


In  the  southern  portions  of  the  belt,  along  the  Kaweah  and  Tule  rivers, 
there  are  Giant-Tree  groves  that  deserve  to  be  called  forests — vigorous 
young  trees  and  saplings,  growing  beside  their  ancient,  storm-stricken 
sires,  but  more  often  the  Giant  Trees  bear  much  the  same  relation  to 
the  forest  as  a  whole  as  is  borne  by  the  occasional  primeval  oaks  found 
among  the  common  second-growth  timber  in  the  "woods"  of  the  East 
and  Middle  West. 

The  largest  tree  known  is  probably  the  "General  Sherman,"  in  the 
Giant  Forest  Grove  in  the  Sequoia  National  Park,  about  forty  miles 
east  of  the  town  of  Visalia,  in  the  central  southern  part  of  the  State. 
It  has  a  circumference  of  lOS  feet;  200  feet  from  the  ground  it  is  not 
less  than  70  feet  around,  and  even  with  its  crown  broken  off  it  is  280 
feet  high. 

It  was  of  such  trees  as  this,  which,  scarred  by  fire,  broken  off  by 

3 — NR 


—  34  — 

storms  or  lightning,  yet  tower  aloft  in  a  majesty  and  beauty  almost 
undimmed,  as  if  gifted  with  eternal  life,  that  John  Muir  wrote : 

''So  exquisitely  harmonious  and  finely  balanced  are  even 
the  very  mightiest  of  these  monarchs  of  the  woods,  in  all  their 
proportions  and  circumstances,  that  never  is  anything  over- 
grown or  monstrous  looking  about  them.  *  *  *  No  other 
tree  in  the  Sierra  forest  has  foliage  so  densely  massed,  nor 
presents  outlines  so  firmly  drawn  and  so  steadily  subordinate 
to  a  special  type.  A  knotty,  ungovernable-looking  branch,  five 
to  eight  feet  thick,  may  be  seen  pushing  out  abruptly  from  the 
smooth  trunk,  as  if  sure  to  throw  the  regular  curve  into  con- 
fusion, but  as  soon  as  the  general  outline  is  reached,  it  stops 
short  and  dissolves  in  spreading  bosses  of  law-abiding  sprays, 
just  as  if  every  tree  were  growing  beneath  some  huge,  invisible 
bell  glass,  against  whose  sides  every  branch  was  being  pressed 
and  molded,  yet  somehow  indulging  in  so  many  small  depar- 
tures from  the  regular  form  that  there  is  still  an  appearance 
of  freedom.    *    *    * 

''As  soon  as  any  accident  happens  to  the  crown  of  these 
Sequoias,  such  as  being  stricken  off  by  lightning  or  broken  by 
storms,  then  the  branches  beneath  the  wound,  no  matter  how 
situated,  seem  to  be  excited,  like  a  colony  of  bees  that  have  lost 
their  queen,  and  become  anxious  to  repair  the  damage.  Limbs 
that  have  grown  outward  for  centuries  at  right  angles  to  the 
trunk  begin  to  turn  upward  to  assist  in  making  a  new  crown, 
each  speedily  assuming  the  special  form  of  true  summits. 
Even  in  the  case  of  mere  stumps,  burned  half  through,  some 
mere  ornamental  tuft  will  try  to  go  aloft  and  do  its  best  as  a 
leader  in  forming  a  new  head.     *     *     * 

"I  never  saw  a  big  tree  that  had  died  a  natural  death; 
barring  accidents,  they  seem  to  be  immortal,  being  exempt 
from  all  the  diseases  that  afflict  and  kill  other  trees.  Unless 
destroyed  by  man,  they  live  on  indefinitely,  until  burned, 
smashed  by  lightning,  or  cast  down  by  storms  or  by  the  giving 
way  of  the  ground  on  which  they  stand.  *  *  *  The  colossal 
•scarred  monument  in  the  Kings  River  forest  is  burned  half 
way  through,  and  I  spent  a  day  in  making  an  estimate  of  its 
age,  clearing  away  the  charred  surface  with  an  axe,  and  care- 
fully counting  the  annual  rings  by  the  aid  of  a  pocket  lens. 
The  wood  rings  in  the  section  I  laid  bare  were  so  involved  and 
contorted  in  some  places  that  I  was  not  able  to  determine  its 
age  exactly,  but  I  counted  over  four  thousand  rings,  which 
showed  that  this  tree  was  in  its  prime,  swaying  in  the  Sierra 
winds  when  Christ  walked  the  earth.  No  other  tree  in  the 
world,  as  far  as  I  know,  has  looked  down  on  so  many  centuries 
as  the  Sequoia,  or  open  such  impressive  and  suggestive  views 
into  history. ' ' 

And  it  is  monarchs  like  these,  who  have  seen  the  sun  rise  on  a  million 
crystalline  Sierra  mornings,  who  have  fought  their  centuries  of  battle 
against  fire  and  winter  snows  and  thunderbolts  and  winds,  who  must 
now  fall  before  tiny  scrambling  humans  with  ravenous  axes  and  be 


—  35  — 

turned  into  posts  and  grapevine  stakes.  At  the  close  of  the  same 
chapter  quoted  above  is  Muir's  prophecy  that  ''unless  protective  meas- 
ures he  speedily  invented  and  applied,  in  a  few  decades,  at  the  farthest, 
all  that  will  he  left  of  the  Sequoia  gigantea  will  he  a  few  hacked  and 
scarred  monuments. ' ' 

Yet  all  through  the  belt  these  wonderful  monuments  are  being 
destroyed.  They  are  not  felled  to  make  pillars  for  temples.  No  unusual 
or  beautiful  service  is  performed  through  their  destruction.  They  are 
first  chopped  down,  then,  with  enormous  waste,  blown  to  pieces  with 
gunpowder,  and  then  ironically  split  up  into  fence  posts  and  grapevine 
stakes.  That  is  about  as  low  a  task  a  good  wood  could  be  put  to — only 
a  step  higher  than  the  splinters  from  old  boxes  which  elderly  ladies 
stick  into  flowerpots  to  hold  up  geraniums. 

The  only  grove  thoroughly  safe  from  destruction  is  the  Mariposa, 
which  is  owned  by  the  State  of  California.  In  the  Sequoia  and  General 
Grant  National  Parks,  which,  theoretically,  are  owned  by  the  nation, 
there  are  about  1,200  acres  in  private  ownership.  Captain  Young 
secured  options  on  the  Sequoia  National  Park  holdings  a  few  years  ago, 
and  the  Government  could  have  bought  them  then,  it  is  said,  for  the 
very  reasonable  sum  of  $86,000.  However  the  owners  may  have 
acquired  title,  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  they  have  made  no  attempt  to 
hold  up  the  Government  for  an  unreasonable  price.  As  usual,  however, 
Congress  did  not  see  fit  to  act.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  the  destruc- 
tion of  these  trees,  should  the  owners  choose  to  cut  them  down,  except 
the  fact  that  there  is  no  lumber  road  out  of  the  park,  and  the  Govern- 
ment has  thus  far  declined  to  grant  a  right  of  way.  If  the  owners 
chose  to  force  their  claim,  however,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  the 
Government's  position  could  be  legally  upheld. 

The  preservation  of  giant  trees  is  a  question  for  the  people  them- 
selves. How  much  are  these  trees  worth  to  them,  not  as  lumber,  but 
as  monuments,  as  wonderful  and  beautiful  relics  of  a  vanished  age? 
For  they  are  relics  and  monuments — the  world  has  no  other  Sequoias. 
They  are  either  to  be  preserved  or  destroyed  forever — like  the  Pyramids 
or  the  Parthenon.  And  although  there  are  several  groves,  the  number 
of  trees  which,  in  comparison  with  the  majestic  pines  and  firs  and 
spruces  round  them,  can  properly  be  called  "giant"  trees  is  probably 
not  more  than  five  hundred. 

Just  what  methods  Government,  State,  and  individuals  should  adopt 
is  rather  beyond  the  purpose  of  this  article,  which  merely  undertakes 
to  explain  what,  and  where  the  giant  trees  are.  To  be  sure,  one  can't 
help  thinking  of  California  millionaires.  Some  of  them  have  public 
spirit  and  wish  to  do  something  for  their  country.  Any  man  who  saves 
one  of  these  groves,  or  even  one  giant  tree  for  the  people  bestows  a  gift 
which  not  only  will  do  him  honor  during  his  lifetime,  but  will  still  be 


—  36  — 

standing,  as  it  is  to-day,  hundreds,  possibly  thousands,  of  years  after 
all  the  vain  little  human  structures  of  our  day  have  crumbled  to  pieces 
or  been  pounded  up  into  macadam  streets. 

DREDGER  MINING. 

Our  laws  are  stupid,  too,  in  regard  to  the  dredger  industry.  They 
allow  capitalists  to  come  into  our  fertile  valleys,  pay  big  prices  for 
fields,  orchards,  vineyards,  and  convert  them  into  barren  piles  of  rocks. 
This  makes  a  temporary  prosperity.  The  owners  of  the  soil  get  a  lot  of 
money,  work  is  plentiful,  prices  are  good — and  the  capitalist  carries 
away  large  profits,  perhaps.  But  the  brief  prosperity  passes  away  in 
four  or  five  years — and  what  of  the  land  ?  It  is  no  more !  It  would  have 
otherwise  been  producing  food,  supporting  people  and  paying  taxes  for 
four  or  five  hundred  years  or  four  or  five  thousand — but  now  it  is  gone. 
It  is  a  hideous  desolation  for  all  time  to  come. 

There  is  something  wrong  in  this.  It  is  legal  at  present,  but  it  is  not 
moral.  No  one  should  have  a  right  to  destroy  the  Homes  of  the  future. 
It  is  against  the  general  good.  We  have  a  right  to  use  the  land — but  not 
to  destroy  it.     [E-  h.] 

THE  LOSS  OF  OUR  SOIL. 

This  striking  statement  is  from  that  splendid  journal  The  Outlook,  edited  by 
Lyman  Abbott. 

We  are  in  the  habit  of  speaking  of  the  solid  earth  and  the  eternal 
hills  as  though  they,  at  least,  were  free  from  the  vicissitudes  of  time, 
and  certain  to  furnish  perpetual  support  for  prosperous  human  life. 
This  conclusion  is  as  false  as  the  term  "inexhaustible"  applied  to  other 
natural  resources.  The  waste  of  soil  is  among  the  most  dangerous  of 
all  wastes  now  in  progress  in  the  United  States.  In  1896  Professor 
Shaler,  than  whom  no  one  has  spoken  with  greater  authority  on  this 
subject,  estimated  that  in  the  upland  regions  of  the  states  south  of 
Pennsylvania  three  thousand  square  miles  of  soil  had  been  destroyed 
as  the  result  of  forest  denudation,  and  that  the  destruction  was  then 
proceeding  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  square  miles  of  fertile  soil  per 
year.  No  seeing  man  can  travel  through  the  United  States  without 
being  struck  with  the  enormous  and  unnecessary  loss  of  fertility  by 
easily  preventable  soil  wash.  The  soil  so  lost,  as  in  the  case  of  many 
other  wastes,  becomes  itself  a  source  of  damage  and  expense,  and  must 
be  removed  from  the  channels  of  our  navigable  streams  at  an  enormous 
annual  cost.  The  Mississippi  River  alone  is  estimated  to  transport 
yearly  four  hundred  million  tons  of  sediment,  or  about  twice  the  amount 
of  material  to  be  excavated  from  the  Panama  Canal.  This  material  is 
the  most  fertile  portion  of  our  richest  fields,  transformed  from  a 
blessing  to  a  curse  by  unrestricted  erosion. 


—  37 


THE  LARGEST  NATIONAL  TASK. 

From  the  address  of  President  Roosevelt  at  the  meeting  of  the  Conservation 
Conference  held  in  Washington,  D.  C,  December  8,  1908. 

I  welcome  you  to  Washington  and  to  the  work  you  have  gathered  to 
do.  No  service  to  the  nation  in  time  of  peace  could  be  of  greater  worth 
than  the  work  which  has  brought  you  together.  In  its  essence  your  task 
is  to  make  the  nation's  future  as  great  as  its  present.  That  is  what 
the  conservation  of  our  resources  means.  This  movement  means  that 
we  shall  not  become  great  in  the  present  at  the  expense  of  the  future, 
but  that  we  shall  show  ourselves  truly  great  in  the  present  by  providing 
for  the  greatness  of  our  children's  children  who  are  to  inherit  the  land 
after  us.  It  is  the  largest  national  task  of  to-day,  and  I  thank  you  for 
making  ready  to  undertake  it. 

I  am  especially  glad  to  welcome  the  cooperation  of  the  States, 
through  their  Conservation  Commissions  and  otherwise.  Such  coopera- 
tion gives  earnest  of  mutual  assistance  between  states  and  nation,  and 
mutual  benefits  to  follow.  "Without  it  the  great  task  of  perpetuating 
the  national  welfare  would  succeed,  if  at  all,  with  difficulty.  If  states 
and  nation  work  for  it  together,  all  in  their  several  fields,  and  all 
joining  heartily  where  the  field  is  common,  we  are  certain  of  success 
in  advance.  We  are  concerned  with  the  people's  rights;  if  this  means 
national  rights,  well  and  good ;  if  it  means  states '  rights,  well  and  good ; 
we  are  for  whatever  serves  the  cause  of  the  people's  rights. 

The  results  of  the  inventory  of  resources  will  be  laid  before  the 
present  conference  by  the  National  Conservation  Commission.  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  review  these  results  further  than  to  say  that  the  more 
striking  facts  brought  out  at  the  conference  last  May  are  amply  con- 
firmed. These  facts  are  sobering.  No  right-minded  citizen  would  stop 
the  proper  use  of  our  resources,  but  every  good  American  must  realize 
that  national  improvidence  follows  the  same  course  and  leads  to  the 
same  end  as  personal  improvidence — and  no  man  is  a  good  American 
if  he  does  not  think  of  future  Americans,  any  more  than  a  man  is  a 
good  citizen  if  he  does  not  think  of  his  children's  welfare;  for  there 
isn  't  any  man  whom  we  despise  more  than  the  man  who  has  a  good  time 
himself  and  whose  children  pay  for  it.  So  with  the  nation ;  that  nation 
is  contemptible  that  riots  in  abundance  by  wasting  the  heritage  it  should 
leave  to  the  citizens  that  are  to  come  afterwards.  Needless  waste  must 
stop.  The  time  to  deride  or  neglect  the  statements  of  experts  and  the 
teaching  of  the  facts  has  gone  by.  The  time  to  act  on  what  we  already 
know  has  arrived.  Common  prudence,  common  sense,  and  common 
business  principles  are  applicable  to  national  affairs  just  as  they  are  to 
private  affairs,  and  the  time  has  come  to  apply  them  in  dealing  with 
the  foundations  of  our  prosperity. 


38 


THE  WASTE  IN  MUD. 

This  article  is  from  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  of  March  27th.  It  is  a  fine 
example  of  modern  American  newspaper  English.  It  tells  the  story  in  a 
deliciously  whimsical,  humorous  way.  Yet  the  grim  facts  stick  out  boldly  all 
through  it,  in  spite  of  its  quips  and  jests.     It  is  by  Emerson  Hough. 

With  the  exception  of  that  certain  wicked  uncle,  of  whom  nothing 
ever  was  expected  and  of  whom  no  good  could  be  predicted,  all  your 
family,  like  the  average  American  family,  no  doubt  regularly  went  to 
church.  Probably  the  majority  stayed  over  for  Sabbath-school  in  the 
little  church  with  white  walls  and  black  walnut  pews.  You  could  not 
have  been  in  a  better  place.  At  church  or  Sabbath-school  you  all  stood 
in  a  row  and  sang  that  easy,  lilting  old  hymn  which  says : 

Little  drops  of  water,  little  grains  of  sand, 
Make  the  mighty  ocean  and  the  pleasant  land. 

You  could  not  have  sung  a  better  song.  We  all  used  to  sing  that  song 
with  cheerfulness,  indeed  with  enthusiasm — Lit-tle  drops  of  wa-a-a-ter, 
lit-tle  gra-ay-ins  of  sand,  make  the  mighty  o-o-shun,  an'  the  pleh-heh-sent 
la-a-a-nd !  That  was  the  way  it  ran.  After  we  had  sung  it  we  all  went 
home  and  forgot  all  about  it.  The  next  Monday  morning  Dad  went  back 
to  farming,  just  the  way  his  Dad  had,  and  the  Dad  who  antedated  that 
one,  world  without  end ;  and  not  one  of  those  Dads  was  ever  wise  enough 
to  know  the  hymn  was  right,  or  to  figure  out  what  the  hymn  meant  or 
ought  to  mean.  It  is  a  splendid  hymn,  full  of  vast  elemental  truth,  and 
it  has  a  lot  to  do  with  farming. 

Heretofore,  your  folks  and  mine  hadn't  thought  that  geology  had 
much  to  do  with  farming,  any  more  than  religion  had.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  they  both  do.  The  only  trouble  is,  the  average  American,  like  you 
and  me,  does  very  little  thinking  in  religion,  politics  or  business.  The 
farmer  knows  the  country  immediately  around  him.  The  city  man  does 
not  even  know  all  of  the  city  where  he  lives,  only  a  little  corner  of  it.  It 
is  this  carelessness  in  religion,  politics,  business  and  geology  which  gives 
the  sad-eyed  Mr.  James  J.  Hill  still  further  opportunity  to  grieve  over 
the  future  of  this  country. 

What  Mr.  Hill  sees  is  the  time  when  five  hundred  millions  of  Japanese 
and  Chinamen  will  be  making  all  our  manufactured  goods  under  a  scale 
of  living  so  much  cheaper  than  the  American  standard  as  to  crush  out 
all  American  competition.  This  means  not  only  the  fiercest  struggle 
ever  known  for  trade,  but  the  fiercest  struggle  ever  known  for  a  mere 
living.  It  is  the  war  between  the  Oriental  standard  of  living  and  the 
American  standard  as  we  now  know  it.  The  decisive  battle  of  that  war 
must  be  fought  on  the  American  farm,  not  in  the  California  legislature. 
The  American  standard  of  living  is  based  on  the  theory  of  an  exhaustless 


—  39  — 

bank  account.  Our  account  has  never  been  overdrawn,  and  we  have 
never  had  our  bankbook  balanced.  It  is  only  now  that  a  few  of  our 
wiser  men  begin  to  see  that  it  is  time  for  us  to  get  a  balance  from  the 
clerk  at  the  desk.  We  have  been  checking  out,  like  inebriated  mariners, 
what  we  had  or  thought  we  had  in  this  rich  bank  of  America,  land  of  the 
free,  country  of  endless  opportunity.  Now  we  have  used  up  our  forests, 
are  exhausting  our  mines  at  fearsome  speed,  have  exterminated  most  of 
our  wild  game,  endangered  the  food  supply  which  comes  from  the 
waters,  and,  in  general,  done  all  w^e  could  to  put  an  end  to  our  great 
resources,  recklessly  spending  not  only  our  interest  but  also  our  princi- 


A   hundred   acres   of   good   land   made   worthless   by    flood, 
fence  posts  covered  by  sand. 


Orchards    smothered   and 


pal.  We  have  not  even  left  unscathed  the  pleasant  land.  Not  only  are 
we  using  up  at  mad  speed  the  natural  products  of  the  soil,  but  also  are 
using  up  the  soil  itself. 

If  you  think  that  the  soil  is  exhaustless,  or  that  it  can  be  replaced,  it 
might  behoove  you  to  take  a  homoeopathic  dose  of  geology  and  also  take 
another  guess.  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  most  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  would  like  to  have  us  all  take  the  trouble  of  studying  the  ground 
we  stand  on.  Mr.  Roosevelt's  recent  message  asked  us  to  pass  our  bank- 
books in  at  the  window  for  a  balance.  It  is  an  unpleasant  thing  to  do. 
There  are  always  so  many  more  vouchers  out  than  we  thought.  The 
balance  is  always  so  much  smaller  than  we  thought,  and  the  bank  has 


40  — 


such  an  unpleasant  way  of  being  right  in  its  figures.    Yet  the  time  has 
come  for  a  show-down  between  the  American  people  and  America  itself. 
Out  on  the  Blackfoot  Reservation  there  stands  a  tall,  lone  mountain, 
rising  like  a  monument  above  the  surrounding  plain,  and  nearly  detached 
from  the  Rockies,  which  lie  behind  it.    This  peak  the  Indians  call  Chief 
Mountain.    Here  the  Blackfoot  sometimes  comes  to  pray.    In  his  mysti- 
cism his  prayer  runs: 
' '  0  Thou,  at  whose  feet 
the    buried    years    lie 
fallen!"     That    is    to 
say,    there    is    in    his 
mind    the    thought    of 
the     slow     forces     of 
Nature.    He  reverences 
the  idea  of  erosion.    He 
would  understand  and 
not  forget  that  hymn 
if  he  sung  it,  which  in 
effect  tells  us  that  all 
we  have  in  this  world 
comes  of  the  relations 
of     soil     and     water. 
There    will   be    a    few 
million  American  farm- 
ers who  will  learn  that 
same  truth  some  time. 
The  somewhat  mad  and 
drunken  American  peo- 
ple have  ignored   and 
inverted      that      truth 
heretofore.     They  have 
done  all  they  could  to 
go   bankrupt,    to    ruin 
one  of  the  richest  por- 
tions of  the  earth 's  sur- 
face, one  of  the  pleas- 
antest   lands   ever   taken   over   for   human   habitation,   one   obviously 
intended  by  the  Great  Forces  as  the  place  for  the  development  of  the 
highest  form  of  civilization  and  the  most  splendid  flowering  of  human 
endeavor. 

What  is  the  pleasant  land,  and  where  does  it  come  from  ?  Of  course, 
the  average  man  supposes  that  the  soil  was  always  there,  like  Uncle  Joe 
Cannon,  Niagara  Falls  and  the  tax  deficit;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
soil  grew.    In  that  vast  story  the  action  was  rather  more  deliberate  than 


Wasted  country,  caused  by  removal  of  forest  cover. 
Heav5'  rains  wash  the  soil  away,  down  to  naked 
rock.  The  river  channels  are  clogged  and  this 
region  is  useless,  lost  to  the  world. 


41  — 


As  a  result  of  deforestation  of  the  hills  above  a  little  stream 
swells  to  a  torrent  like  this.  The  rich  bottom  land  is 
carried  away,  leaving  only  rocks  and  gravel  behind. 


that  of  a  vaudeville  sketch.     Geology  is  not  dramatic  in  that  neurotic 
sense  of  the  word  which  customarily  we  employ  to-day.    Yet  you  and  I, 

and  this  country 
and  other  coun- 
tries, are  figures 
in  the  great 
drama.  It  might 
not  harm  us  to 
note  what  a  lead- 
ing scientist  says 
as  to  the  time  of 
the  action  of  the 
play: 

"For  average 
rock,  under  ordi- 
narily favorable 
conditions  in  our 
range  of  climate, 
the  usual  esti- 
mate has  been  a 
foot  of  waste  in 
four  thousand  to 
six  thousand  years,  which  includes  the  channel  cutting  and  bank  under- 
mining. These  are  too  rapid  for  ordinary  soil-waste  under  our  normal 
natural  conditions.  Without  any  pretensions  to  a  close  estimate,  I 
should  be  un- 
willing to  name 
a  mean  rate  of 
soil  formation 
greater  than  one 
foot  in  ten  thou- 
sand years  on 
the  basis  of  ob- 
servation since 
the  glacial 
period.  I  sus- 
pect that,  if  we 
could  positively 
determine  the 
time  taken  in  the 
, formation  of  the 
four  feet  of  soil 

,  1  Fai-m    land    destroyed    by    gullies    and    sandbars    from    freshet. 

next  to  ttie  rOCK  rpj-^^   farm   was   abandoned    in    consequence. 


—  42  — 

over  the  average  domain  where  such  depth  obtains,  it  would  be  found 
above  rather  than  below  forty  thousand  years.  Under  such  an  estimate, 
to  preserve  good  working  depth,  surface  wastage  should  not  exceed  some 
such  rate  as  one  inch  in  one  thousand  years.  When  ovir  soils  are  gone 
we  too  must  go,  unless  we  shall  find  some  way  to  feed  on  raw  rock  or 
its  equivalent. ' ' 

So  there  is  something  in  the  story  of  the  pleasant  land.  Search  all  the 
dictionaries  through,  comb  out  all  the  rhetoric  books,  and  you  couldn't 
get  a  happier  phrase  than  that :  ' '  The  pleasant  land. "  It  is  excellent. 
It  is  perfect.  Like  any  other  savage,  you  feel  a  deep  thrill  of  delight 
when  you  see  the  vast  pictures  of  the  unhurt  out-of-doors.  You  have 
delight  in  the  sight  of  green  trees,  of  growing  grasses  and  nodding 
flowers.  This  panorama  of  hill  and  dale,  of  rolling  lands  and  forest- 
covered  valleys  and  lofty  mountains  pleases  you.  Why?  It  is  because 
all  this  was  laid  out  in  the  intent  of  Nature  to  produce  you  and  me  and 
support  us.  It  is  beautiful  in  the  beauty  of  utility.  It  is  laid  out  on 
precisely  the  right  lines  to  keep  up  the  balance  of  the  aforesaid  little 
drops  of  water  and  little  grains  of  sand,  of  which  the  one  supports  the 
other  in  the  making  of  this  pleasant  land.  It  got  its  contours  out  of 
that  balance.  We  grew  out  of  the  contours.  This  vast  and  splendid 
landscape  is  the  portrait  of  our  mother.  We  forget  the  hymn  about  it. 
Like  a  weak,  irritable,  nasty-tempered  child,  Ave  strike  the  great  ]\Iother 
in  the  face,  presuming  on  her  vast  indifference  or  her  vast  pity.  And 
all  the  while  Man  is  only  the  last  animal  that  has  been  invented,  and 
some  time  there  will  be  a  successor  for  him.  If  we  destroy  the  soil  we 
hasten  that  day  when  the  successor  shall  come.  Now  the  undeniable 
truth  is  that  we  are  spending  more  than  our  inch  of  soil  per  thousand 
years. 

Civilized  man.  money-mad  business  man,  crazed  man,  average  man,  is 
doing  all  he  can  to  destroy  the  balance  between  .the  little  drops  and  the 
little  grains.  Not  only  is  he  doing  all  he  can  to  invite  the  successor  of 
man  in  the  scheme  of  life,  but  he  is  hastening  all  he  can  that  incidental 
intermediate  thing — to  give  it,  perhaps,  the  only  interesting  form  into 
w^hich  the  statement  can  be  put  in  the  terms  of  commercial  To-day — the 
show-down  between  the  American  standard  of  living  and  that  of  other 
peoples  who  never  had  so  big  a  bank  account  as  ours,  and  Avho,  therefore, 
learned  to  save. 

This  hymn  of  the  soil  is  the  one  great  hymn.  It  sings  of  the  one  great 
heritage  of  life.  We  speak  of  this  or  that  man  "owning"  thus  or  so 
much  of  the  earth's  surface.  That,  of  course,  is  impossible.  He  takes  it 
or  borrows  it,  perhaps,  but  he  can  oayu  no  more  than  six  feet  of  it,  and 
that  only  for  a  short  time.  The  soil  belongs  to  Life.  The  "buried 
years"  resent  any  embezzlement  of  our  great  heritage.  The  soil  is 
owned  by  plants,  by  animals,  by  men  of  this  or  that  nation,  this  or  that 


—  43  — 

age,  that  past,  yonder  future.  If  we  sin  against  the  soil,  ours  will  be  the 
Great  Punishment — which  is  to  say,  extinction,  oblivion.  If  you  plow 
badly,  it  is  you  for  the  star-dust ! 

Even  before  Wall  Street  was  invented  there  was  more  water  than  any- 
thing else  in  the  world.  Finally,  on  the  little  crust  of  land  some  tiny 
plant  began  to  grow,  no  one  knows  just  when.  Perhaps  at  one  time  the 
plant  could  not  have  told  whether  it  was  a  plant  or  an  animal,  but,  any- 
how, in  time  it  turned  into  some  green  thing  which  looked  tempting  to 
some  old  Ichthyosaurus,  and  the  latter,  of  a  pleasant  spring  morning, 
while  tired  of  eating  salt  stuff  and  canned  goods,  crawled  up  out  of  the 
water  and  made  a  meal  on  the  first  recorded  salad.     It  looked  good  to 


The  soil  of  a  whole  valley  washed  away  by  a  freshet.  Observe  the 
little  island  of  good  land  left  In  the  midst  of  a  hopeless  waste 
of  cobblestones. 


him  and  he  came  back.  Other  members  of  the  Saurus  family  got  on  to 
the  snap  and  also  came  up  out  of  the  water,  all  sorts  of  long-tailed  and 
long-billed  creatures,  which,  to  make  the  story  short,  in  time  became 
land  animals.  All  these  animals  in  the  original  balance  of  things  not 
only  used  that  land,  but  helped  to  extend  its  total  salad-producing  acres. 
They  trampled,  they  spread  seeds,  they  increased  the  soil  products. 
Vegetable  mould  increased.  The  little  drops  of  water  fell  on  it,  and 
plants  grew  again  on  the  pleasant  land.  The  Saurus  family  moved  in 
and  permanently  frequented  the  head  lettuce,  cabbage  and  turnip 
greens  of  that  day. 

All  went  merry  as  a  marriage  bell,  until,  in  time,  ]\Ian  came  along. 
The  old  ways  did  not  suit  him.    He  began  to  farm,  at  first  by  means  of  a 


—  44  — 

crooked  stick,  and  at  last  by  means  of  the  Harvester  Trust.  Inci- 
dentally, he  forgot  all  about  the  buried  years,  and,  with  a  skill  and  speed 
and  malice  which  would  have  caused,  any  self-respecting  Saurus  to  blush 
with  shame,  did  all  he  could  to  wreak  destruction  upon  the  forests  of  the 
earth,  on  the  mines,  on  the  waters,  and  on  the  soil  itself.  He  overdrew^ 
his  bank  account,  more  in  America  than  ever  has  been  known  in  all  the 
long,  slow  history  either  of  the  world  or  of  the  earth. 

It  would  not  be  Avorth  while  to  make  here  merely  a  series  of  sweeping 
general  statements,  or  to  make  statements  not  definitely  understandable. 
As  it  happens,  the  chapter  and  verse  are  ready  at  hand.  It  is  entirely 
feasible  not  only  to  recognize  the  waste  in  American  soil,  but  to  measure 


What  happens  when  tlie  wooded  cover  is  removed  from  the  land. 
Erosion  sets  in ;  and  the  land  turns  a  bare,  unsmiling  face 
toward  the  sky.  Vegetation  can  get  no  foothold.  The  world 
has  lost  some  of  its  power  to  feed  its  people. 

it.  The  late  Professor  N.  S.  Shaler  estimated  the  destruction  of  agri- 
cultural lands,  chiefly  through  old-field  erosion,  in  the  southern  Atlantic 
and  Gulf  States  at  several  thousand  square  miles ;  and  in  portions  of  this 
regions  the  waste  involves  a  complete  removal  of  a  superficial  geologic 
deposit,  well  adapted  to  forming  a  productive  soil,  from  underlying 
older  formations  ill  suited  to  the  development  of  fertile  soils  and  sub- 
soils ;  in  which  case  the  loss  is  irremediable. 

Other  estimates  of  soil-waste  rest  on  the  determination  of  soil-matter 
transported  by  our  running  waters.  The  most  extensive  measurements 
of  this  kind  were  those  of  Generals  Humphreys  and  Abbott,  made  on  the 
Mississippi  over  half  a. century  ago.  These  showed  that  the  Mississippi 
then  carried  annuallv  into  the  Gulf  something'  over  four  hundred  million 


—  45  — 

tons  of  solid  matter,  in  addition  to  great  quantities  of  earth-salts,  carried 
in  solution,  and  of  sand  or  other  coarse  material  rolled  or  swept  along 
the  bottom. 

At  the  time  of  these  determinations  settlement  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  was  comparatively  limited,  and,  as  shown  by  local  observations 
on  different  rivers,  the  effect  of  extending  agriculture  has  been  to 
increase  the  soil-matter  carried  by  the  Mississippi  fully  twenty-five  per 
cent;  while  comparative  determinations  made  on  several  other  streams 
indicate  that  the  rivers  of  the  country  outside  of  the  Mississippi  basin 
carry  into  the  sea  about  as  much  soil-matter  as  the  great  river  itself — 
that  is,  that  the  annual  soil-wash  of  the  United  States  aggregates  fully 
one  billion  tons !  Our  balance  of  trade  is  going  some,  isn  't  it  ?  Also, 
unfortunately,  our  soil,  which  raised  that  balance  of  trade,  is  going 
some. 

A  fraction  of  the  matter  transported  by  the  waters  is  coarse  (sand  and 
gravel),  but  fully  ninety  per  cent  consists  of  rich  soil-stuff  washed  from 
the  surface  or  leached  from  the  subsurface  of  fields  and  pastures  and 
(in  less  degree)  of  woodlands.  Reckoned  on  the  basis  of  value  as 
fertilizer,  the  material  could  hardly  be  appraised  at  less  than  one  dollar 
per  ton;  so  that  the  annual  loss  to  the  agricultural  interests  of  the 
country  can  hardly  fall  short  of  a  billion  dollars — equivalent  to  an 
impost  as  great  as  most  other  taxes  combined,  and  one  yielding  absolutely 
no  return.  It  is  worse  than  that.  Most  of  us  have  known  stocks  to  pass 
a  dividend.  How  would  we  feel  if  the  whole  stock  and  everything  back 
of  it  were  wiped  out?  What  would  we  think  of  the  management  that 
allowed  such  an  event  to  happen  ?  But  this  is  happening,  and  under  our 
own  management. 

The  foregoing  are  estimates  made  by  a  United  States  soil  expert. 
Other  competent  Government  authorities  can  offer  us  definite  food  for 
additional  thought,  if  we  care  to  hearken.  The  greatest  loss  of  our  soil, 
we  are  told,  is  from  preventable  erosion.  The  total  soil-wash  of  the 
country  is  a  billion  tons  a  year.  This  would  make  a  pile  of  adobe  as  high 
as  the  Washington  Monument  and  a  mile  long  on  each  of  the  four  sides ! 
Cleared  and  plowed  lands,  the  source  of  food  products,  are  the  ones 
which  suffer. 

Most  of  the  soil-wash — at  least  seven  hundred  and  eighty-five  million 
tons  every  twelve  months,  probably — is  dumped  into  the  ocean  and  lost 
forever.  This  would  fill  four  channels  as  big  as  the  Panama  Canal, 
according  to  the  original  specifications.    So  says  the  cold-eyed  soil  expert. 

Four  hundred  million  tons  of  soil  are  washed  from  the  borders  of  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers  and  their  tributaries  every  year  and 
poured  as  mud  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  So  says  the  wild-eyed  Washing- 
ton statistician. 


—  46  — 

Muddy  waters  carry  more  impurities  than  clear,  and  so  endanger 
health  more.  They  have  greater  power  for  cutting  away  the  banks  of 
streams.  Deposits  in  the  channels,  drifting  sand-bars  and  changing 
courses  are  caused  entirely  by  silt  in  muddy  streams.  Had  you  ever 
thought  of  that?  Read  the  hymn  backward.  Thrown  out  of  balance, 
water  and  sand  i^n-make  the  pleasant  land. 

From  the  State  of  Missouri  alone  enough  soil  is  carried  away  annually 
to  make  a  prism  one  mile  square  and  six  hundred  feet  high.  The 
Missouri  River  bears  into  the  Mississippi  every  twelve  months  enough 
earth  to  make  a  mud-pile  a  mile  square  and  four  hundred  feet  high. 
The  billion  tons  of  soil  which  are  washed  away  every  year  would  spread 
a  layer  like  Nile  mud  over  Indiana,  Illinois  or  Iowa.  But  what  good  does 
it  do  buried  in  the  depths  of  the  mighty  ocean?  It  may  help  some 
future  Saurus  family,  but  it  won't  help  yours. 

Whole  towns  have  been  washed  away  by  the  change  of  currents  in 
silt-laden  streams.  In  some  neighborhoods  an  entire  farm  has  been 
taken  up  and  carried  across  to  the  other  side  of  a  river.  Within  the 
past  year  the  town  of  Pine  Bluff,  Arkansas,  was  threatened  with 
destruction,  many  of  the  buildings  toppling  over  into  the  turbid  flood. 

Bad  plowing  is  the  cause  of  a  great  deal  of  soil-waste.  The  farmer 
of  America  each  year  digs  a  Panama  Canal  with  his  little  plow.  Each 
year  he  digs  out  of  the  heart  of  his  little  forty,  eighty  or  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  of  land  a  block  of  dirt  really  bigger  than  the  entire  cut 
of  the  whole  Panama  Canal.  The  riches  of  his  farm  take  wings.  He  did 
not  see  them  go.  He  does  not  understand  that  he  is  literally  plowing 
his  farm  into  the  mighty  ocean.  Not  only  do  we  waste,  hut  that  waste 
accelerates  each  year.  That  is  the  horrible  feature  of  all  these  resource- 
wastes — they  increase  geometrically  with  awful  swiftness.  The  buffalo 
went  ' '  all  at  once. ' '  The  trees,  the  fish,  the  ore,  will  go  ' '  all  at  once. ' ' 
We  do  not  like  high  prices,  but  higher  prices  than  we  now  can  dream 
are  coming  to  us  Americans  unless  we  can  get  down  to  a  practical  basis 
on  religion,  politics  and  business — unless  we  can  understand  that  little 
old  hymn  we  used  to  sing. 

When  ax  and  plow  work  together  as  agents  of  destruction  and  not 
as  creative  influences,  then  we  are  not  using  good  business  sense.  Yet 
that  is  what  we  have  done — ripped  the  covering  from  the  soil,  and  then 
ripped  off  the  soil  itself.  In  that  way  we  destroyed  a  primary  value. 
In  that  way,  also,  we  raised  the  price,  cut  down  the  supply  of  food,  of 
clothes,  of  habitation,  for  the  average  man.  The  average  American  has 
let  a  few  men  steal  him  blind,  and  now  he  is  stealing  himself  blind.  The 
soil  is  the  connecting  link  between  organic  and  inorganic  life.  It  is  the 
foundation  of  organized  society  and  of  all  civilization.  It  is  not  only 
our  bank  account,  but  more — it  is  the  place  where  all  the  bank  accounts 
come  from. 


—  47  — 

Any  man  who  touches  the  soil,  and  even  the  city  n^ 
ought  to  understand  it.  The  main  truths  are  simple  enou^i,  lilgg^most 
big  things.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  depth  of  soil,  and  therefore  richness  in 
product,  is  inverse  as  to  slope,  because  the  soil  washes  thin  on  the  hill- 
sides and  runs  thicker  on  the  flat.  Therefore,  on  the  flats  it  raises  more 
vegetation,  which  in  turn  furnishes  more  mulch,  which  in  turn  holds 
more  moisture,  which  in  turn  produces  more  vegetation.  The  great 
circle  of  the  conservation  of  forces  is  a  simple  and  beautiful  thing. 


A   truck   garden   ruined  by   flood.      The   fertile   soil   carried   away,    leaving   gullies 
in  some  places  and  great  piles  of  driftwood  and  gravel  in  others. 


Slope,  water  supply,  organic  action,  all  these  govern  soil  as  in  the  days 
of  the  Saurus  family.  That  is  the  Hymn  of  Life.  Good  plowing  is 
good  religion.  Good  politics  is  good  religion.  Good  business  is  good 
religion.  Good  geology  is  good  religion,  too,  and  the  circle  runs  around 
and  around,  beautiful  and  complete,  if  only  we  care  to  look  at  it  in  that 
way. 

When  the  Government  gets  the  little  drops  of  water  regulated  in  Wall 
street,  and  when  we  begin  to  understand  the  relation  of  those  little 
drops  and  little  grains  on  our  farm,  we  shall  begin  to  see  in  America 
the  arrival  of  a  golden  age,  one  of  growth  in  art,  in  beauty,  in  mentality, 
in  altruism.     Even  at  this  stage  of  our  development  we  ought  to  have 


—  48  — 

intelligence  equal  to  that  of  the  average  Ichthyosaurus.  What  Uncle  Sam 
is  trying  to  show  us  is,  that  without  water  there  is  no  civilization,  and 
that  without  proper  relation  of  water  and  soil  there  is  industrial 
anarchy.  Bad  handling  of  water  means  less  crops,  less  soil,  more 
polluted  streams,  more  choked  up  channels,  more  floods,  more  waste  and 
ruin,  the  balance  of  things  thrown  out  of  plumb,  and  the  world  literally 
turned  upside-down.  The  Hymn  of  Life  is  one  which  in  time  the  great 
Teacher  of  the  Universe  is  going  to  force  us  to  remember,  whether  we 


A  rich,  alluvial  farm,  destroyed  by  a  freshet. 

wish  to  remember  it  or  not.     It  is  not  Washington,  but  the  Universe, 
which  is  handing  a  message  to  us. 

What,  then,  ought  we  to  do  to  get  out  of  the  Ichthyosaurus  class  and 
to  give  our  beneficent  protective  tariff  something  to  protect?  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  not  up  to  Uncle  Sam,  but  up  to  us.  Louis  XVI.  said, 
''The  State,  it  is  myself!"  That  was  in  France,  and  some  time  ago. 
The  State,  it  is  ourselves,  here  in  America.  The  remedy  does  not  begin 
with  your  neighbor,  but  with  yourself,  and  with  you  it  begins  as  soon 
as  you  realize  that  no  bank  account  will  stand  perpetual  checking 
against  it.  Uncle  Sam  is  willing  to  help  any  one  of  us  begin  the  study 
of  the  soil  to-day. 


—  49  — 

The  soil  experts  of  the  Government  are  no  more  able  to  classify  farms 
than  the  average  farmer — every  farmer  knows  that  there  may  be  heavy, 
sticky  soil;  thin,  light,  sandy  soil;  clay  soil;  open  and  friable  mould. 
Any  farmer  knows  that  the  great  idea  is  to  retain  the  natural  moisture 
under  the  soil  and  not  let  it  run  off  on  the  surface.  The  experts  show 
that  deep  plowing  is  a  good  thing  in  certain  soils,  to  get  the  water  down 
into  the  earth.  If  the  land  is  very  flat,  deep  tilling  may  be  necessary  to 
get  this  surplus  water  out,  so  that  the  soil  may  drain  dry  and  disinte- 
grate. Most  farmers  know  that,  in  a  general  way;  but  Uncle  Sam  can 
teach  the  average  farmer  a  wrinkle  or  so  as  to  the  right  balance  of  the 
little  drops  and  the  little  grains. 

On  the  hillsides  which  wash  so  badly,  the  soil  expert  says,  we  ought 
to  study  contour  farming,  as  it  is  called.  A  "vertical  or  slanting  furrow 
will  soon  become  a  vertical  gully.  The  horizontal  furrow  at  the  same 
elevation  all  around  the  hill  has,  on  the  other  hand,  a  tendency  to  stop 
the  running  off  of  water.  Great  benefit,  also,  comes  from  using  strips  of 
grass  land,  lying  in  bands  of  the  same  elevation  around  the  sides  of  a 
dangerous  hill.  Terracing  of  farms  is  new  in  this  country,  where  we 
have  always  just  gone  West  instead.  We  see  the  terraces  of  Chinese  and 
Japanese  lands,  and  suppose  they  must  have  been  made  at  the  expense 
of  great  labor,  but  in  reality  it  was  Time  and  Nature  that  made  them. 
The  soil  which  is  washed  out  of  the  horizontal  furrow  is  in  part  or  in 
whole  stopped  when  it  strikes  the  edge  of  the  grass  land.  In  many 
years  it  banks  up  more  and  more.  If  not  controlled  it  would  not  bank 
up,  but  simply  run  down  the  hill  and  fly  away  into  the  mighty  ocean. 

In  rolling  lands  the  canny  farmer  plants  crops  toward  the  tops  of  the 
hills  to  produce  cover  and  mulch,  and  so  to  stop  wash.  He  reserves  some 
of  his  bottom  lands  for  grass,  to  catch  the  soil-wash  and  use  it.  If  he 
did  not,  some  of  his  farm  would  run  away,  and  not  only  impoverish  him, 
but,  perhaps-,  work  injury  to  his  neighbor.  It  is  not  good  farming  to 
farm  every  inch  of  a  rich  bottom.  A  few  bands  of  trees  would  break 
the  driving  force  of  rain.  The  roots  would  stand  against  soil-wash  and 
regulate  the  flooding  which  make  bottom  farming  so  risky  in  some 
localities.  The  average  farmer  may  not  believe  in  the  sense  of  this,  any 
more  than  the  average  lumberman  would  hesitate  to  cut  away  the  forest ; 
but  the  fact  remains.  Of  course,  in  any  very  broken  country,  so  says 
Uncle  Sam,  there  should  be  forestry  mixed  with  farming ;  otherwise,  the 
rainfall  goes  off  in  torrents.  Even  Uncle  Sam  sometimes  forgets  this, 
for,  after  establishing  forest  reserves,  he  very  often  leases  them  out  as 
sheep  or  goat  ranges.  These  animals  trample  little  paths,  which  soon 
become  gullies,  which,  in  their  time,  become  great  avenues  of  waste.  I 
have  seen  mountains  in  New  Mexico  ruined  by  goats. 


4 NR 


—  50  — 

For  fuller  particulars,  any  anxious  inquirer  might  do  much  worse 
than  refer  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  where  many  of  these  great, 
slow  problems  are  now  under  careful  consideration.  As  to  actual 
remedy,  however,  nothing  can  be  done  so  long  as  we  ourselves  remain 
ignorant  or  careless  in  politics,  religion  and  business.  We  must  see 
higher  than  the  walls  of  our  little  grooves.  Also,  we  must  see  about 
us  in  our  own  little  grooves.  Waste  begins  on  your  own  forty  acres, 
right  at  your  door.  You  are  the  unit,  the  individual  citizen.  From  you 
it  is  a  step  up  to  your  hundred,  under  the  old  Saxon  law.  Thence  you 
go  to  your  town,  your  State,  your  National  Government.  Your  wish  can 
prevail,  if  you  like,  at  each  and  every  step  of  that  advance.  You  can 
say  to  that  legislator  who  thinks  of  himself  and  not  of  you,  that  you 
would  rather  have  in  his  place  a  man  who  stands  for  guarded  resources, 
for  large  reserves  of  forests,  rich  soil,  a  proper  water  flow,  an  unimpeded 
navigation,  for  fair  play  all  along  the  line.  It  all  begins  with  you  and 
me.  We  have  a  good  country  and  a  good  government,  but  they  won't 
run  themselves.  The  reform  of  a  great  many  things  begins  away  this 
side  of  Washington,  District  of  Columbia.  Some  of  it  can  begin  in  the 
caucus,  or  the  primary,  or  the  forty-acre  field.  Common-sense  and 
enforced  laws  now,  or  the  piper  to  pay  after  a  while — which  is  better  1 

At  our  present  nice  little  industrial  gait,  here  in  America,  we  are 
burning  the  candle  at  both  ends,  quite  regardless  of  the  fact  that  when 
it  is  burnt  out,  it  can  never  be  renewed.  Such  American  fortunes  as 
were  made  out  of  theft  of  America 's  common  resources  must  surely,  one 
day  and  in  some  way,  pay  the  price.  But  let  us  little  fellows  who  have 
not ' '  succeeded ' '  in  the  world  see  to  it  that  we  keep  our  own  hands  clean. 

This  was  a  very  wonderful  and  beautiful  country.  Having  seen  it 
before  civilization  took  it  all  over,  perhaps,  some  of  us  do  not  care  so 
much  for  civilization  as  we  might. 

Perhaps  some  of  us  would  rather  be  Indians  and  pray  to  Chief 
Mountain,  or  would  rather  have  been  members  of  the  Saurus  family, 
before  there  was  any  such  thing  as  taxes  and  when  potato  salad  was  free. 
Yet  here  we  are,  each  in  his  little  groove,  and,  if  we  have  to  play  the 
game,  we  ought  to  understand  the  game  and  know  what  the  game  is 
about. 

At  least  one  truth  is,  we  don 't  own  the  soil.  We  borrow  it.  We  ought 
t.o  hand  it  over  to  the  successor  of  our  species  in  as  good  condition  as 
when  we  asked  the  loan.  The  Saurus  family  played  the  game  as  fair 
as  that  with  us ;  and  the  finest  Sauri  in  the  world  were  raised  right  here 
in  the  United  States.    Perhaps  they  didn't  forget  the  hymns  they  sang. 


—  51  — 

OUR  WATER  POWER. 

Unquestionably  California 's  greatest  asset  is  her  water  power.  Every 
year  the  big,  round  sun  lifts  millions  of  tons  from  the  waters  of  the 
Pacific,  to  be  carried  eastward  by  the  winds  and  sprinkled  upon  ten 
thousand  hills  and  valleys  in  the  highlands  of  the  Sierras.  Slowly  it 
trickles  downward,  returning  to  the  sea.  It  is  gathered  into  rivulets, 
brooks,  torrents,  that  dash  faster  and  faster  down  the  deep  canyons 
and  steep  gorges  in  the  western  flanks  of  the  mountains.  More  and  more 
we  are  learning  to  use  the  power  of  these  millions  of  tons  as  they 
descend  from  highlands  to  lowlands.  This  power  is  destined  to  be  the 
greatest  single  element  in  the  future  development  of  the  State.  It  is 
destined  to  turn  the  wheels  of  industry,  transport  people  and  products, 
light  and  warm  the  homes  of  the  whole  State.  It  will  be  an  absolute 
necessity  to  life  and  prosperity  when  oil  and  coal  are  gone.  Those  who 
control  it  will  be  the  lords  and  rulers  of  mankind. 

Up  to  date  our  stupid  laws  give  away  this  precious  power  forever  to 
any  one  who  wants  it,  and  give  him  all  that  he  wants,  however  much — 
for  nothing!  Thus  we  part  with  our  great-grandchildren's  birthright, 
and  do  not  even  get  a  mess  of  pottage  in  return.  The  descendants  of 
us  who  foolishly  part  with  this  power  now  will  pay  tribute  for  cen- 
turies to  the  descendants  of  the  men  who  get  it.  These  Power  Lords  will 
rule  over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  the  millions  of  vassals  who  must  have 
the  Power  in  order  to  live. 

This  Power  should  be  leased,  never  permanently  disposed  of.  Its 
title  is  not  rightly  vested  in  us  at  all.  It  belongs  to  the  Future.  It 
should  never  be  granted  to  any  one  in  perpetuity,  but  for  n  term  of 
years,  a  century,  if  need  be ;  but  in  perpetuity,  never,    [e.  h.] 

"BLIND  MOUTHS." 

An  editorial  from  Century  Magazine,  November,  1907.  It  is  a  very  fine 
example  of  scholarly  modern  English. 

Literature  is  full  of  trenchant  expressions  of  the  recklessness  of 
greed,  such  as  ' '  After  us,  the  deluge ! "  "  Devil-may-care ' '  and  '  *  Out  of 
sight,  out  of  mind" — but  none  of  them  compares  with  the  lightning- 
like revelation  of  selfishness  made  by  these  two  words  of  Milton's. 
Conveying,  as  they  do,  the  sense  of  an  all-consuming  appetite,  the  very 
maw  of  darkness,  they  would  seem  to  have  come  from  the  poet 's  vituper- 
ative prose,  rather  than  from  the  flowing  elegy  of  the  gentle  Lycidas. 

''What  has  posterity  ever  done  for  us  that  we  should  do  anything 
for  posterity?"  is  a  saying  as  striking  for  the  falsity  of  its  suggestion 
as  for  the  edge  of  its  wit.  The  most  obvious  material  and  natural 
reasons  impel  us  to  work  for  posterity.  Our  happiness  consists  largely 
in  procuring  the  happiness  of  our  children  and  our  grandchildren, 
whose  happiness  in  turn  will  consist  in  the  happiness  of  their  children 


—  52  — 

and  grandchildren.  However  attenuated  this  altruistic  sentiment  may 
become  with  further  extension,  it  is  enough  for  practical  purposes  if  it 
shall  re'ach  forward  four  generations.  We  bless  our  ancestors  for  the 
building  of  roads  and  the  planting  of  trees,  and  it  is  what  posterity 
will  do  for  us  in  the  way  of  benediction  that  rightly  animates  any  one 
above  the  beasts.  Indeed,  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  civilization 
itself  lies  in  the  fact — and  to  the  extent — that  "out  of  sight"  is  not 
**out  of  mind." 

It  is  with  the  conservation  of  the  forests  that  we  are  here  concerned, 
for  without  them  there  would  be  far  less  range  to  administer.  Until 
1890  our  land  policy  was  all  steam  and  no  brake.  Under  a  false 
individualism,  due  to  consideration  for  the  bona  fide  settler  and  the 
Civil  War  veteran,  the  larger  interests  of  the  region,  which  included 
their  interests,  were  forgotten.  Recklessness  and  waste  were  rampant. 
By  false  entries,  bribery,  and  local  terrorism  millions  of  acres  were 
acquired  and  held  by  individuals  and  corporations,  and  what  was 
intended  for  the  homemaker  fell  into  the  grasp  of  commercial  exploiters, 
whose  operations  have  not  only  left  trails  of  devastation,  but  have 
poisoned  the  politics  of  many  states. 

During  Mr.  Harrison's  administration  *  *  *  came  a  new  policy. 
By  a  legislative  provision,  passed  March  3,  1891,  the  President  was 
authorized  to  withdraw  from  public  entry  and  set  apart  and  reserve 
in  any  state  or  territory  such  portions  of  the  public  lands  as  might  in 
his  opinion  be  desirable  for  the  preservation  of  the  forests  and  w^aters. 
Then  began  a  campaign  of  education  throughout  the  country  so  con- 
tinuous that  he  must  be  ignorant  indeed  who  does  not  know  the  impres- 
sive reasons  why  the  upland  forests  must  be  preserved.  The  lingering 
tragedies  of  those  Mediterranean  countries — Greece,  Italy,  France, 
Spain,  and  the  African  coast — which  permitted  wholesale  destruction 
of  their  forests,  have  been  rehearsed  for  our  warning 

Till  old  Experience  do  attain 
To  something  of  prophetic  strain, 

while  the  success  of  the  present  far-sighted  policies  of  Germany,  France, 
and  other  countries  have  been  cited  for  our  encouragement. 

*  *  *  The  walnut  and  white  pine  of  the  Lake  States  are  virtually 
exhausted;  the  leather  trust  is  everywhere  decimating  the  hemlock  for 
tanbark,  while  the  soft  woods,  saplings  as  well  as  larger  growth,  are 
being  indiscriminately  devoured  by  the  pulp  mills.  Meanwhile,  the 
senseless  tariff  on  lumber  tempts  the  rich  companies  to  further  deple- 
tion of  our  resources,  rather  than  permit  the  builder  to  buy  in  the 
cheaper  and  inexhaustible  market  of  Canada.     Could  folly  further  go? 

Reversing  the  witticism,  let  us  ask.  What  has  posterity  ever  done  to 
us  that  we  should  do  such  things  to  posterity  ? 


53 


WHEN  THE  FORESTS  ARE  GONE. 

Teachers  of  geography  and  others  interested  in  such  matters  will  find  a  wealth 
of  good  material  in  a  large  volume  by  George  P.  Marsh  entitled  THE  EARTH 
AS  MODIFIED  BY  HUMAN  ACTION.  The  following  paragraphs  give  a  vivid 
idea  of  conditions  in  certain  parts  of  France.  It  is  the  part  of  wise  people  to 
profit  by  the  experience  of  others,  to  take  warning  from  others'  misfortunes. 

"When  the  forest  is  gone,  the  great  reservoir  of  moisture  stored  up 
in  its  vegetable  mould  is  evaporated,  and  returns  only  in  deluges  of  rain 
to  wash  away  the  parched  dust  into  which  that  mould  has  been  con- 
verted. The  well-wooded  and  humid  hills  are  turned  to  ridges  of  dry 
rock,  the  debris  from  which  encumbers  the  low  grounds  and  chokes  the 
watercourses,  and — except  in  countries  favored  with  an  equable  distri- 
bution of  rain  throughout  the  seasons,  and  a  moderate  and  regular 
inclination  of  surface — the  whole  earth,  unless  rescued  by  human  art 
from  the  physical  degradation  to  which  it  tends,  becomes  an  assemblage 
of  bald  mountains,  of  barren,  turfless  hills,  and  of  swampy  and 
malarious  plains.  There  are  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  of  northern  Africa, 
of  Greece,  and  even  of  Alpine  Europe,  where  the  operation  of  causes  set 
in  action  by  man  has  brought  the  face  of  the  earth  to  a  desolation 
almost  as  complete  as  that  of  the  moon;  and  though,  within  that  brief 
space  of  time  which  we  call  "the  historical  period,"  they  are  known  to 
have  been  covered  with  luxuriant  woods,  verdant  pastures,  and  fertile 
meadows,  they  are  now  too  far  deteriorated  to  be  reclaimable  by  man, 
nor  can  they  become  again  fitted  for  human  use. ' ' 

"The  Alps  of  Provence  present  a  terrible  aspect.  In  the  more 
equable  climate  of  northern  France,  one  can  form  no  conception  of 
those  parched  mountain  gorges,  where  not  even  a  bush  can  be  found  to 
shelter  a  bird,  where,  at  most,  the  wanderer  sees  in  summer  here  and 
there  a  withered  lavender,  where  all  the  springs  are  dried  up,  and  where 
a  dead  silence,  hardly  broken  by  even  the  hum  of  an  insect,  prevails. 
But  if  a  storm  bursts  forth,  masses  of  water  suddenly  shoot  from  the 
mountain  heights  into  the  shattered  gulfs,  waste  without  irrigating, 
deluge  without  refreshing  the  soil  they  overflow  in  their  swift  descent, 
and  leave  it  even  more  seared  than  it  Avas  from  want  of  moisture.  Man 
at  last  retires  from  the  fearful  desert,  and  I  have,  the  present  season, 
found  not  a  living  soul  in  districts  where  I  remember  to  have  enjoyed 
hospitality  thirty  years  ago." 

"  It  is  certain  that  the  productive  mould  of  the  Alps,  swept  off  by  the 
increasing  violence  of  that  curse  of  the  mountains,  the  torrents,  is  daily 
diminishing  with  fearful  rapidity.  All  our  Alps  are  wholly,  or  in  large 
proportion,  bared  of  wood.  Their  soil,  scorched  by  the  sun  of  Provence, 
cut  up  by  the  hoofs  of  the  sheep,  which,  not  finding  on  the  surface  the 
grass  they  require  for  their  sustenance,  gnaw  and  scratch  the  ground 


—  54  — 

in  search  of  roots  to  satisfy  their  hunger,  is  periodically  washed  and 
carried  off  by  melting  snows  and  summer  storms." 

' '  I  will  not  dwell  on  the  effects  of  the  torrents.  For  sixty  years  they 
have  been  too  often  depicted  to  require  to  be  further  discussed,  but  it  is 
important  to  show  that  their  ravages  are  daily  extending  the  rang^  of 
devastation.  The  bed  of  the  Durance,  which  now  in  some  places  exceeds 
a  mile  and  a  quarter  in  width,  and,  at  ordinary  times,  has  a  current 
of  water  less  than  eleven  yards  wide,  shows  something  of  the  extent  of 
the  damage.  Where  ten  years  ago,  there  were  still  woods  and  cultivated 
grounds  to  be  seen,  there  is  now  but  a  vast  torrent;  there  is  not  one  of 
our  mountains  which  has  not  at  least  one  torrent,  and  new  ones  are 
daily  forming. 

*^In  the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire  the  Durance  was  a  navigable, 
or,  at  least,  a  boatable,  river,  with  a  commerce  so  important  that  the 
boatmen  upon  it  formed  a  distinct  corporation. 

''Even  as  early  as  1789  the  Durance  was  computed  to  have  already 
covered  with  gravel  and  pebbles  not  less  than  130,000  acres,  which  but 
for  its  inundations,  would  have  been  the  finest  land  in  the  province." 


BEFORE  AND  AFTER. 

Last  summer  I  went  back  to  visit  my  boyhood  home  in  Ohio,  after 
an  absence  of  thirty  years.  One  of  the  most  striking  changes  in  the 
landscape  was  in  the  roofs  of  the  buildings.  They  were  nearty  all  of 
slate  instead  of  shingles.  A  shingle  roof  was  a  sign  that  the  house  was 
a  very  old  one.  Even  the  chicken  houses  and  barns  and  woodsheds  were 
roofed  with  slate. 

For  why,  wooden  shingles  had  grown  so  high  priced  that  slates  could 
be  brought  from  a  distant  state  to  compete  with  them ;  and  the  shingles 
were  all  made  of  such  knotty,  brash,  inferior  lumber  that  they  rotted 
away  in  a  short  time  and  were  not  worth  putting  on. 

Looking  further,  it  was  plain  that  in  thirty  years  the  state  had 
changed  from  a  countr.y  of  Avood  to  a  country  of  clay.  Bricl^  were  the 
universal  building  material.  Tiles  were  used  where  bricks  were  impos- 
sible or  undesirable.  Ceramics  was  the  most  important  industry  of  the 
state.  The  lumber  is  gone!  The  wood  is  no  more!  The  trees  are 
gathered  to  their  fathers  ! 

I  gazed  in  astonishment  at  a  vast  old  oaken  barn  that  had  been  in 
the  scenes  of  my  childhood ;  and  talked  with  the  gray-headed  patriarch 
who  owned  it.  Its  sills  were  beams  of  solid  oak,  24  and  26  inches  square, 
30  and  40  feet  long,  and  there  were  scores  of  them.  Away  up,  high 
above  the  tall  haymows,  were  plates  and  beams  by  hundreds,  all  of 
sound  old  oak  and  each  big  enough  for  the  foundation  of  a  great 
building.    The  whole  state  now  would  be  raked  in  vain  to  find  the  timber 


—  55  — 

for  that  one  barn.  The  lumber  in  it  would  be  worth  a  huge  sum  now. 
But  the  old  man  told  me  it  had  all  been  cut  from  the  choice  trees  of 
one  field,  right  there — and  I  looked  afar  over  a  bare  and  treeless  plain. 

And  all  Ohio  was  one  great,  shaggy  forest,  only  a  hundred  years  ago — - 
dense  forests  of  splendid  hardwoods,  walnut,  hickory,  oak,  ash,  maple, 
beech,  sycamore,  poplar.  It  was  inexhaustible.  The  strong  and  hardy 
pioneers  worked  like  slaves  early  and  late  to  cut,  burn,  clear  the  land. 
They  were  sure  the  forests  would  last  till  the  crack  of  doom. 

Only  a  hundred  years  have  passed;  yet  the  country  is  bare;  and 
every  springtime  now  we  read  of  the  devastating  floods  of  the  Ohio; 
and  the  soil  of  the  fertile  farms  continually  goes  to  feed  the  yellow  tides. 

[E.   H.] 

A  NEW  PATRIOTISM. 

?* 

This  article  from  the  World's  Work  Magazine  is  certainly  worth  thoughtful 
reading  by  all  Americans.  Don't  fail  to  note  its  fine,  patriotic  spirit.  It  is  by 
Gifford  Pinchot,  who  has  had  every  opportunity  for  twenty  years  to  know 
whereof  he  speaks.  It  is  said  that  he  accepts  no  salary  for  his  work  as  chief 
forester  of  the  United  States,  but  turns  it  back  into  the  treasury  for  the  good  of 
the  cause,  and  devotes  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  a  labor  of  love. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  on  the  verge  of  one  of  the  great 
quiet  decisions  which  determine  national  destinies.  Crises  happen  in 
peace  as  well  as  in  war,  and  a  peaceful  crisis  may  be  as  vital  and  con- 
trolling as  any  that  comes  with  national  uprising  and  the  clash  of  arms. 
Such  a  crisis,  uneventful  and  almost  unperceived,  is  upon  us  now,  and 
unwittingly  we  are  engaged  in  making  the  decision  that  is  thus  forced 
upon  us.  And,  so  far  as  it  has  gone,  our  decision  is  wrong.  Fortu- 
nately, it  is  not  yet  final. 

The  question  we  are  deciding  with  so  little  consciousness  of  what  it 
involves  is  this:  What  shall  we  do  with  our  natural  resources?  Upon 
the  final  answer  that  we  shall  make  to  it  hangs  the  success  or  failure  of 
this  nation  in  accomplishing  its  manifest  destiny. 

Few  Americans  will  deny  that  it  is  the  manifest  destiny  of  the  United 
States  to  demonstrate  that  a  democratic  republic  is  the  best  form  of 
government  yet  devised,  and  that  the  ideals  and  institutions  of  the  great 
republic  taken  together  must  and  do  work  out  in  a  prosperous,  contented, 
peaceful,  and  righteous  people ;  and  to  exercise,  through  precept  and 
example,  an  influence  for  good  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  That 
destiny  seems  to  us  brighter  and  more  certain  of  realization  to-day  than 
ever  before.  It  is  true  that  in  populajiion,  in  wealth,  in  knowledge,  in 
national  efficiency  generally,  we  have  reached  a  place  far  beyond  the 
farthest  hopes  of  the  founders  of  the  republic.  Are  the  causes  which 
have  led  to  our  marvelous  development  likely  to  be  repeated  indefinitely 
in  the  future,  or  is  there  a  reasonable  possibility,  or  even  a  probability, 
that  conditions  may  arise  which  will  check  our  growth? 


—  56  — 

Danger  to  a  nation  comes  either  from  without  or  from  within.  In 
the  first  great  crisis  of  our  history,  the  Revolution,  another  people 
attempted  from  w  ithout  to  halt  the  march  of  our  destiny  by  refusing 
to  us  liberty.  With  reasonable  prudence  and  preparedness  we  need 
never  fear  another  such  attempt.  If  there  be  danger,  it  is  not  from 
an  external  source.  In  the  second  great  crisis,  the  Civil  War,  a  part 
of  our  own  people  strove  for  an  end  which  would  have  checked  the 
progress  of  our  development.  Another  such  attempt  has  become  forever 
impossible.    If  there  be  danger,  it  is  not  from  a  division  of  our  people. 


Our  Third   National  Crisis. 

In  the  third  great  crisis  of  our  history,  which  has  now  come  upon  us 
unawares,  our  whole  people,  unconsciously  and  for  lack  of  foresight, 
seem  to  have  united  together  to  deprive  the  nation  of  the  great  natural 
resources  without  which  it  can  not  endure.  This  is  the  pressing  danger 
now,  and  it  is  not  the  least  to  which  our  national  life  has  been  exposed. 
A  nation  deprived  of  liberty  may  win  it,  a  nation  divided  may  reunite, 
but  a  nation  whose  natural  resources  are  destroyed  must  inevitably  pay 
the  penalty  of  poverty,  degradation,  and  decay. 

At  first  blush  this  may  seem  like  an  unpardonable  misconception  and 
over-statement,  and  if  it  is  not  true  it  certainly  is  unpardonable.  Let 
us  consider  the  facts.  Some  of  them  are  well  known,  and  the  salient 
ones  can  be  put  very  briefly. 

The  five  indispensably  essential  materials  in  our  civilization  are  wood, 
water,  coal,  iron,  and  agricultural  products. 

We  have  timber  for  less  than  thirty  years  at  the  present  rate  of 
cutting.  The  figures  indicate  that  our  demands  upon  the  forest  have 
increased  twice  as  fast  as  our  population. 

We  have  anthracite  coal  for  but  fifty  years,  and  bituminous  coal  for 
one  hundred. 

Our  supplies  of  iron  ore,  mineral  oil,  and  natural  gas  are  being 
rapidly  depleted,  and  many  of  the  great  fields  are  already  exhausted. 
Mineral  resources  such  as  these  when  once  gone  are  gone  forever. 

We  have  allowed  erosion,  that  great  enemy  of  agriculture,  to  impov- 
erish and,  over  hundreds  of  square  miles,  to  destroy  our  farms.  The 
Mississippi  alone  carries  yearly  to  the  sea  more  than  4,000,000,000  tons 
of  the  richest  soil  within  its  drainage  basin.  If  this  soil  is  worth  a  dollar 
a  ton,  it  is  probable  that  the  total  loss  of  fertility  from  soil-wash  to  the 
farmers  and  forest  owners  of  the  United  States  is  not  far  from  a  billion 
dollars  a  year.  Our  streams,  in  spite  of  the  millions  of  dollars  spent 
upon  them,  are  less  navigable  now  than  they  were  fifty  years  ago,  and 
the  soil,  lost  by  erosion  from  the  farms  and  the  deforested  mountain 
sides,  is  the  chief  reason.    The  great  cattle  and  sheep  ranges  of  the  West, 


—  57  — 

because  of  over-grazing,  are  capable,  in  an  average  year,  of  carrying  but 
half  the  stock  they  once  could  support  and  should  still.  Their  condition 
affects  the  price  of  meat  in  practically  every  city  of  the  United  States. 
These  are  but  a  few  of  the  more  striking  examples.  The  diversion  of 
great  areas  of  our  public  lands  from  the  home  maker  to  the  landlord 
and  the  speculator,  the  national  neglect  of  great  water  powers,  which 
might  well  relieve,  being  perennially  renewed,  the  drain  upon  our 
non-renewable  coal ;  the  fact  that  but  half  the  coal  has  been  taken  from 
the  mines  which  have  already  been  abandoned  as  worked  out  and  in 
caving-in  have  made  the  rest  forever  inaccessible;  the  disuse  of  the 
cheaper  transportation  of  our  waterways,  which  involves  but  little 
demand  upon  our  non-renewable  supplies  of  iron  ore,  and  the  use  of 
the  rail  instead — these  are  other  items  in  the  huge  bill  of  particulars 
of  national  waste. 

The  Disregard  of  the  Future. 

We  have  a  well-marked  national  tendency  to  disregard  the  future, 
and  it  has  led  us  to  look  upon  all  our  natural  resources  as  inexhaustible. 
Even  now  that  the  actual  exhaustion  of  some  of  them  is  forcing  itself 
upon  us  in  higher  prices  and  the  greater  cost  of  living,  we  are  still 
asserting,  if  not  always  in  words,  yet  in  the  far  stronger  language  of 
action,  that  nevertheless  and  in  spite  of  it  all,  they  still  are  inex- 
haustible. 

It  is  this  national  attitude  of  exclusive  attention  to  the  present,  this 
absence  of  foresight  from  among  the  springs  of  national  action,  which 
is  directly  responsible  for  the  present  condition  of  our  natural  resources. 
It  was  precisely  the  same  attitude  which  brought  Palestine,  once  rich 
and  populous,  to  its  present  desert  condition,  and  which  destroyed  the 
fertility  and  habitability  of  vast  areas  in  northern  Africa  and  elsewhere 
in  so  many  of  the  older  regions  of  the  world. 

The  conservation  of  our  natural  resources  is  a  question  of  primary 
impoi;jtance  on  the  economic  side.  It  pays  better  to  conserve  our  natural 
resources  than  to  destroy  them,  and  this  is  especially  true  when  the 
national  interest  is  considered.  But  the  business  reason,  weighty  and 
worthy  though  it  be,  is  not  the  fundamental  reason.  In  such  matters, 
business  is  a  poor  master  but  a  good  servant.  The  law  of  self-preserva- 
tion is  higher  than  the  law  of  business,  and  the  duty  of  preserving  the 
nation  is  still  higher  than  either. 

The  American  Eevolution  had  its  origin  in  part  in  economic  causes, 
and  it  produced  economic  results  of  tremendous  reach  and  weight.  The 
Civil  War  also  arose  in  large  part  from  economic  conditions,  and  it  has 
had  the  largest  economic  consequences.  But  in  each  case  there  was  a 
higher  and  more  compelling  reason.  So  with  the  third  great  crisis  of 
our  history.    It  has  an  economic  aspect  of  the  largest  and  most  perma- 


—  58  — 

nent  importance,  and  the  motive  for  action  along  that  line,  once  it  is 
recognized,  should  be  more  than  sufficient.  But  that  is  not  all.  In  this 
case,  too,  there  is  a  higher  and  more  compelling  reason.  The  question 
of  the  conservation  of  natural  resources,  or  national  resources,  does  not 
vStop  with  being  a  question  of  profit.  It  is  a  vital  question  of  profit, 
but  what  is  still  more  vital,  it  is  a  question  of  national  safety  and 
patriotism  also. 

We  have  passed  the  inevitable  stage  of  the  pillage  of  natural  resources. 
The  vast  wealth  we  found  upon  this  continent  has  made  us  rich.  We 
have  used  it,  as  we  had  a  right  to  do,  but  we  have  not  stopped  there. 
We  have  abused,  and  wasted,  and  exhausted  so  much  that  there  is  the 
gravest  danger  that  our  prosperity  to-day  will  have  been  made  at  the 
price  of  the  suffering  and  poverty  of  our  descendants.  We  may  now 
fairly  ask  of  ourselves  a  reasonable  care  for  the  future  and  a  natural 
interest  in  those  who  are  to  come  after  us.  No  patriotic  citizen  expects 
this  nation  to  run  its  course  and  perish  in  a  hundred,  or  two  hundred, 
or  five  hundred  years;  but,  on  the  contrary,  we  expect  it  to  grow  in 
influence  and  power  and,  what  is  of  vastly  greater  importance,  in  the 
happiness  and  prosperity  of  our  people.  But  we  have  as  little  reason 
to  expect  that  all  this  will  happen  of  itself  as  there  would  have  been 
for  the  men  who  established  this  nation  to  expect  that  a  United  States 
would  grow  of  itself  without  their  efforts  and  sacrifices.  It  was  their 
duty  to  found  this  nation,  and  the}^  did  it.  It  is  our  duty  to  provide 
for  its  continuance  in  well-being  and  honor.  That  duty  it  seems  as 
though  we  might  neglect.  Not  in  willfulness,  not  in  any  lack  of 
patriotic  devotion,  when  once  our  patriotism  is  aroused,  but  in  mere 
thoughtlessness  and  inability  or  unwillingness  to  drop  the  interests  of 
the  moment  long  enough  to  realize  that  what  we  do  now  will  decide 
the  future  of  the  nation.  For,  if  we  do  not  take  action  to  conserve  the 
natural  resources,  and  that  soon,  our  descendants  will  find  them  gone. 

Let  me  use  a  homely  illustration:  We  have  all  known  fathers  and 
mothers,  devoted  to  their  children,  whose  attention  was  fixed  and  lim- 
ited by  the  household  routine  of  daily  life.  Such  parents  were  actively 
concerned  with  the  common  needs  and  precautions  and  remedies  entailed 
in  bringing  up  a  family,  but  blind  to  every  threat  that  was  at  all 
unusual.  Fathers  and  mothers  such  as  these  often  remain  serenely 
unaware  while  some  dangerous  malady  or  injurious  habit  is  fastening 
itself  upon  a  favorite  child.  Once  the  evil  is  discovered,  there  is  no 
sacrifice  too  great  to  repair  the  damage  which  their  unwitting  neglect 
may  have  allowed  to  become  irreparable.  So  it  is,  I  think,  with  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  Capable  of  every  devotion  in  a  recognized 
crisis,  we  have  yet  carelessly  allowed  the  habit  of  improvidence  and 
waste  of  resources  to  find  lodgment.  It  is  our  great  good  fortune  that 
the  harm  is  not  yet  altogether  beyond  repair. 


—  59  — 

The  profoundest  duty  that  lies  upon  any  father  is  to  leave  his  son 
with  a  reasonable  equipment  for  the  struggle  of  life  and  an  untarnished 
name.  So  the  noblest  task  that  confronts  us  all  to-day  is  to  leave  this 
country  unspotted  in  honor,  and  unexhausted  in  resources,  to  our 
descendants,  who  will  be,  not  less  than  we,  the  children  of  the  founders 
of  the  republic.  I  conceive  this  task  to  partake  of  the  highest  spirit  of 
patriotism. 


LEARNING  FROM  HISTORY. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  paper  by  A.  B.  Benton,  before  the  Tri- 
counties  Reforestation  Committee,  in  Southern  California.  It  certainly  affords 
food  for  thought. 

The  editor  of  one  of  our  great  weekly  journals  has  written :  ' '  Prob- 
ably the  works  for  which  President  Roosevelt  will  be  longest  remembered 
are  his  efforts  for  the  conservation  of  our  national  natural  resources." 

The  fountains  must  be  renewed,  the  field  must  be  planted,  the  fire 
must  be  checked,  and  by  us  or  we  will  justly  merit  the  contempt  of 
mankind.  We  are  not  the  first,  but  the  last  of  the  nations  who  have 
squandered  their  birthright.  The  splendid  nations  of  old  time,  Egypt, 
Babylonia,  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  India,  China ;  where  our  race  began  its 
career,  where  the  arts  and  letters  and  commerce  and  architecture  were 
born  and  flourished  in  glorious  achievement  for  centuries  and  cen- 
turies— do  you  think  their  lands  were  sterile  then?  Do  you  conceive 
them  as  poorer  in  lavish  gifts  of  nature  than  is  our  land?  Do  you 
suppose  the  teeming  millions  of  their  inhabitants  so  prospered  in  the 
deserts  which  we  find  there  now?  Believe  me,  the  deserts  there  are  of 
men's  making,  and  their  desolation  was  brought  about  by  their  own 
hands.  We  look  on  the  poor  ruins  of  these  once  mighty  empires  with  a 
complacent  pity,  but  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  spirits  of  the  men  of 
old,  if  they  are  cognizant  of  our  doings,  have  greater  reason  for  a 
scornful  pity  than  have  we,  for  they  began  civilization  and  had  little 
before  their  time  to  take  warning,  while  we,  latest  of  all,  I  verily  believe 
have  been  as  reckless  as  any  of  the  great  nations,  ancient  or  modern. 

There  are  many,  even  in  this  day,  who  can  learn  nothing  from  history 
for  their  own  profit.  The  world  of  men  for  thousands  of  years  has  been 
experimenting  with  civilization  of  higher  and  lower  types.  Enough 
of  their  experiences  have  been  written  to  teach  us  every  lesson  we  need 
to  learn  had  we  the  wit  to  read  them  aright.  The  treasures  of  ancient 
and  medieval  research,  their  economics  and  philosophy  have  been  opened 
to  this  age  a  thousand  fold  more  widely  than  to  any  age  whatsoever 
before  us.  If  it,  with  the  histories  of  the  good  and  bad  of  all  ages  before 
it,  not  in  dead  languages,  nor  locked  in  secluded  temples  and  cloisters, 
but  in  its  living  tongues,  and  in  multiplied  libraries — if,  with  all  this 


—  60  — 

before  it,  it  follows  the  blunders  and  mistakes  and  follies  of  the  old  ages 
because  it  will  not  see,  and  seeing  learn,  then  our  civilization  deserves 
not  only  to  perish  as  miserably  as  the  most  miserable  failure  of  them 
all,  but  will  richly  merit  the  epitaph  of  Justice  Dogberry  to  ' '  be  written 
down  an  ass ! ' ' 

We  voters  of  America  are  the  bankers  of  the  nation's  resources. 
Infinitely  more  valuable  is  our  trust  than  that  of  money,  stocks  or 
bonds,  because  once  dissipated,  it  may  not  be  replaced.  If  we  are  to 
preserve  for  our  children  the  heritage  we  received  from  our  fathers,  we 
must  alarm  the  people  out  of  their  thoughtless  indifference.  Public 
thieves  must  be  punished,  fires  must  be  checked,  individual  rights  must 
be  purchased  when  demanded  for  the  public  good.  Wantonness  of 
waste  by  careless  owners  and  destructive  greed  for  immediate  gain  by 
selfish  owners  must  be  controlled.  This  is  a  mighty  task,  more  difficult 
than  some  of  the  greatest  our  ancestors  performed  in  the  old  days.  But 
if  it  be  not  accomplished,  the  shame  of  defeat  will  rest  on  this  genera- 
tion, for  this  is  preeminently  our  battle.  We  may  not  throw  its  burden 
backward  to  our  fathers,  or  forward  to  our  children.  The  former  could 
not  see  its  swift  coming,  the  latter  will  have  little  to  fight  for  if  we 
fail  in  preserving  for  ourselves  and  them  the  resources  by  which  only 
we  or  they  can  win  continued  prosperity. 


—  61 


THE  CITIES,  TOO. 

The  following  appeared  only  a  few  days  ago,  an  editorial  in  a  San  Francisco 
newspaper.  The  accompanying  pictures  show  some  of  the  common  articles  that 
must  double,  treble,  quadruple  in  price  as  wood  grows  scarce. 

The  Government's  efforts  to  save  the  country's  forests  are  impeded  by 
the  fact  that  the  city  man,  who  holds  the  balance  of  political  power,  is 
apt  to  think  that  the  woods  have  nothing  to  do  with  him.  This  is  a  mis- 
take, of  course,  and  is  worth  pointing  out. 

It,  is  true  that  spinach  and  spring  chickens  do  not  grow  on  forest 
trees,  and  that  such  things  come  to  the  city  market  without  much  regard 


to  political  opinions.  But  the  preservation  of  the  country 's  great  natu- 
ral resources  of  wood  and  stream  is  a  political  issue.  And  at  this  point 
our  cockney  ignorance  and  complacency  need  to  be  pierced  by  sane  rays 
of  light  from  the  rural  world. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  wood  supply  is  next  in  importance  to  the  food 
supply.  It  is  probably  more  indispensable  than  the  supply  of  iron  or 
coal. 


—  62  — 

The  cost  of  living— and  consequently  the  standard  of  living  to  which 
city  people  of  ordinary  incomes  can  aspire — is  seriously  affected  by  the 
state  of  the  wood  supply. 

In  view  of  such  considerations  no  San  Franciscan  should  read  with 
listless  eyes  such  statements  as  those  contained  in  a  recent  bulletin  of  the 
National  Forest  Service. 

We  learn  by  this  document,  for  example,  that  an  average  American 
citizen  uses  up  in  a  year  seven  times  as  much  wood  as  a  citizen  of  Ger- 
many. And  we  are  told  that  Americans  produce  on  an  acre  of  woodland 
only  a  quarter  as  much  as  the  Germans  do. 

We  are  assured  by  our  Government  experts  that  there  is  no  natural 
reason  why  we  shouldn  't  grow  as  good  crops  of  trees  in  this  country  as 
are  grown  anywhere  in  Europe.  And  it  is  plain  that  the  improvement 
and  perpetuation  of  the  wood  supply  is  a  matter  of  public  education — 
in  which  city  people  are  bound  to  bear  a  leading  part. 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  FORESTRY. 

From  Circular  No.  140  of  the  United  States  Forest  Service,  by  Treadwell 
Cleveland,  Jr. 

Many  people  in  this  country  think  that  forestry  had  never  been  tried 
until  our  Government  began  to  practice  it  upon  the  national  forests. 
Yet  forestry  is  practiced  by  every  civilized  country  in  the  world,  except 
China  and  Turkey.'  It  gets  results  which  can  be  got  in  no  other  way, 
and  which  are  necessary  to  the  general  welfare.  Forestry  is  not  a  new 
thing.  It  was  discussed  two  thousand  years  ago,  and  it  has  been  studied 
and  applied  with  increasing  thoroughness  ever  since. 

The  principles  of  forestry  are  everywhere  the  same.  They  rest  on 
natural  laws,  which  are  at  work  everywhere  and  all  the  time.  It  is 
simply  a  question  of  how  best  to  apply  these  laws  to  fit  local  needs  and 
conditions.  No  matter  how  widely  countries  may  differ  in  size,  climate, 
population,  industry,  or  government,  provided  only  they  have  forests, 
all  of  them  must  come  to  forestry  some  time  as  a  matter  of  necessity. 
#  #  #  *  *  *  * 

The  countries  of  Europe  and  Asia,  taken  together,  have  passed 
through  all  the  stages  of  forest  history,  and  applied  all  the  known 
principles  of  forestry.  They  are  rich  in  forest  experience.  The  lessons 
of  forestry  were  brought  home  to  them  by  hard  knocks.  Their  forest 
systems  were  built  up  gradually  as  the  result  of  hardship.  They  did 
not  first  spin  fine  theories  and  then  apply  those  theories  by  main  force. 
On  the  contrary,  they  began  by  facing  disagreeable  facts.  Every  step 
of  the  way  toward  wise  forest  use,  the  world  over,  has  been  made  at  the 
sharp  spur  of  want,  suffering,  or  loss.     As  a  result,  the  science  of 


63 


forestry  is  one  of  the  most  practical  and  most  directly  useful  of  all 
the  sciences.  It  is  a  serious  work,  undertaken  as  a  measure  of  relief, 
and  continued  as  a  safeguard  against  future  calamity. 

Roughly,  those  countries  which  to-day  manage  their  forests  on  sound 
principles  have  passed  through  four  stages  of  forest  experience.  At 
first  the  forests  were  so  abundant  as  to  be  in  the  way,  and  so  they 
were  either  neglected  or  destroyed.  Next,  as  settlements  grew  and  the 
borders  of  the  forest  receded  farther  and  farther  from  the  places  where 
wood  was  needed  and 
used,  the  question  of 
local  wood  supplies  had 
to  be  faced,  and  the 
forest  was  spared  or 
even  protected.  Third, 
the  increasing  need  of 
wood,  together  with 
better  knowledge  of 
the  forest  and  its 
growth,  led  to  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  forest 
as  a  crop,  like  agricul- 
tural crops,  which  must 
be  harvested  and  which 
should  therefore  be 
made  to  grow  again. 
In  this  stage  silvicul- 
ture, or  the  manage- 
ment of  the  forest  so 
as  to  encourage  its  con- 
tinued best  growth,  was 
born.  Finally,  as  nat- 
ural and  injiustrial 
progress  led  to  meas- 
ures for  the  general 
welfare,  including  a  wiser  and  less  wasteful  use  of  natural  resources, 
the  forest  was  safeguarded  and  controlled  so  as  to  yield  a  constant 
maximum  product  year  after  year  and  from  one  generation  to  another. 
Systematic  forestry,  therefore,  applied  by  the  nation  for  the  benefit  of 
the  people,  and  practiced  increasingly  by  far-sighted  private  citizens, 
comes  when  the  last  lesson  in  the  school  of  forest  experience  is  mastered. 


In  the  Sierra  National  Forest.  The  ranger's  horses 
are  waiting  for  their  master.  Notice  the  boards 
nailed  on  the  trees  high  overhead.  They  mark 
the  depth  of  the  winter  snows,  and  show  which 
way  to  go  when  the  landscape  is  smothered  by 
its  wintry  blanket. 


China  holds  a  unique  position  as  the  only  civilized  country  which 
has  persistently  destroyed  its  forests.    What  forestry  has  done  in  other 


64  — 


countries  stands  out  in  bold  relief  against  the  background  of  China, 
whose  hills  have  been  largely  stripped  clean  of  all  vegetation,  and  whose 
soil  is  almost  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the  floods.  Trees  have  been  left 
only  where  they  could  not  be  reached.  Almost  the  sole  use  for  lumber 
is  the  manufacture  of  coffins.  The  heavy  two  or  three  inch  planks  for 
this  purpose  are  so  scarce,  and  the  cost  of  transporting  them  by  coolies 
is  so  high,  that  they  sell  for  $2  or  $3  apiece. 

Nowhere  in  the  world  is  the  forest  cleaned  off  down  to  the  very  soil 
as  it  is  in  China.  When  the  trees  are  gone,  the  saplings,  the  shrubs, 
and  even  the  herbage  are  taken.  Slender  pdles  are  used  to  build  houses ; 
inconsiderable  shrubs  are  turned  into  charcoal.  In  the  lower  mountains 
of  northeastern   China,   where  the   stripping  process  has  reached   its 

extreme  phase,  there  is 
no  trace  of  anything 
worthy  of  the  name  of 
forest.  In  the  grave- 
yards and  courts  of  the 
temples  a  few  aged 
cedars  have  been  pre- 
served by  the  force  of 
public  opinion,  and  pop- 
lars and  fruit  trees 
planted  about  dwellings 
are  protected  as  private 
property  by  the  peasant 
owners. 

In  the  province  of 
Shantung,  where  de- 
forestation is  practically 
complete,  fuel  and 
fodder  for  cattle  are  literally  scratched  from  the  hillsides  by  boys  who 
go  out  from  villages  with  their  iron  rakes  in  autumn  to  secure  winter 
supplies.  Grazing  animals,  searching  every  ledge  and  crevice,  crop  the 
remaining  grass  down  to  the  very  roots. 

A  dearth  of  wood  is  not  the  only  forlorn  result  of  forest  devastation ; 
a  dearth  of  water  and  the  ruin  of  the  soil  follow  in  its  train.  In 
western  China,  where  forest  destruction  is  not  yet  complete,  enough 
vegetation  covers  the  mountains  to  retard  the  run-off  of  the  rains  and 
return  sufficient  moisture  to  lower  levels,  where  it  can  be  reached  by 
the  roots  of  crops  and  where  springs  are  numerous.  But  on  the  waste 
hills  of  eastern  China  the  rains  rush  off  from  the  barren  surfaces, 
flooding  the  valleys,  ruining  the  fields,  and  destroying  towns  and 
villages.  No  water  is  retained  at  the  higher  levels,  so  that  none  is  fed 
underground  to  the  lower  soils  or  to  the  springs.    As  a  result,  even  on 


In  the  Tahoe  National  Forest.  The  mountain 
meadows  afford  continuous  pasture  for  many 
thousands  of  cattle  under  proper  regulation. 
Thousands  upon  thousands  of  acres  of  the 
splendid  pine  forests  about  the  lake  have  been 
cut  down  and  carried  down  into  the  bowels  of 
the  earth  in  the  mines  of  the  Comstock  Lode. 


—  65  — 

the  plains  the  water  level  is  too  far  beneath  the  surface  to  be  used. 
Without  irrigation  and  the  ingenious  terracing  of  hillsides,  by  which 
the  rains  are  made  to  wash  the  soil  into  thousands  of  miniature  fields 
whose  edges  are  propped  up  by  walls,  agriculture  would  be  entirely 
impossible.  Even  irrigation  calls  for  the  immense  labor  of  drawing 
the  needed  water  from  wells. 


b  ^....^kiMk..^ 

im 

.»                                          ■'-    '"  ■*,' 

'^d^  -" 

.^^...u.,..,  ^,^^:z.-^=ZS^^  ■ 

pW^SBPiHP'^^^^^^W^^ " 

'^  '"-jfi 

;rr-'ii   flT:fS;^::;=:^s*^ 

Ife^^^nls^^"' 

Logging    under   proper    principles   of    forestry.      The    young    trees    are    uninjured,    the 
brush  is  piled  for  burning,  some  heed  is  taken  to  the  future. 

In  a  word,  the  Chinese,  by  forest  waste,  have  brought  upon  themselves 
two  costly  calamities — floods  and  water  famine. 


WHY  IS  THIS? 

As  these  words  are  written  (January,  1909),  the  richest  agricultural 
region  of  California  is  being  devastated  by  flood.  The  Sacramento 
Eiver  stands  over  twenty-nine  feet  above  low-water  mark  at  the  Capital 
of  the  State — the  highest  that  it  has  ever  been.  The  fertile  islands  in 
the  vast  delta  of  the  Sacramento-San  Joaquin  river  system  are  one  by 
one  going  under  the  waves,  although  their  levees  are  higher  than  ever 
before,  although  they  were  built  up  and  patrolled  and  fought  for  with 
all  the  determination,  enterprise,  devotion  that  human  nature  is  capable 
of.     Tens  of  thousands  of  acres  already  are  lost. 

Why  is  this?     Why  should  the  waters  be  higher  than  ever  before? 


-NR 


—  ee- 
ls the  rainfall  greater  ?  Is  there  more  snow  than  in  bygone  years  ?  No. 
The  reason  lies  in  the  folly  and  improvidence  of  man.  We  cut  and  burn 
away  the  forest  cover  on  the  Sierras  so  that  they  can  no  longer  hold 
back  the  waters  for  the  summer  streams.  We  wash  the  soil  upon  which 
our  future  prosperity  depends  into  the  channels  of  our  rivers,  choking 
them  and  raising  them  above  the  level  of  the  land.    [e.  h.] 


THE  VITAL  TRUTH. 

Stewart  Edward  White,  the  noted  writer  of  camping  and  outdoor  stories,  lives 
in  Santa  Barbara.  Even  his  honeymoon  was  spent  in  the  open,  in  a  horseback 
trip  through  the  high  Sierras  round  about  Mount  Whitney.  He  has  written  a 
fine  article  for  the  American  Magazine  for  January,  1908,  under  the  caption 
THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  FORESTS,  from  which  the  following  is  extracted,  by 
permission. 

''When  a  man  makes  his  camp  in  the  wilderness  he  hunts  first  of  all 
two  requisites.  If  they  exist  in  abundance,  he  is  happy  and  comfort- 
able; if  they  lack,  he 
must  take  his  rest,  and 
move  on  to  more  fa- 
vored localities.  These 
two  requisites  are  wood 
and  water. 

And,  curiously 
enough,  these  two  neces- 
sities of  man's  abiding 
depend  absolutely  one 
on  the  other.  Without 
rainfall  the  forests  will 
not  grow.  Without  the 
forests  the  rainfall  is 
destructive,  rather  than 
beneficent.  In  a  naked 
country — whether  arti- 
ficially or  naturally  so- 
— the  water  comes  in 
great  torrential  floods; 
followed  by  droughts. 
A  covering  of  forest,, 
on  the  other  hand,  re- 
tains the  rainfall  a» 
would  a  sponge,  dis- 
tributing   it    slowly 

How  the  forests  hold  back  the  water  and  check  the  through       regulated 

banks    a"wa^^^^  ^^^  streams  from  washing  their  streams,  holding  it  back 


A  hill   that  has  lost   its   wooded   cover,    and   is   therefore   losing   Its    soil   by   erosion. 
Nothing  here  to  check  the  floods,  or  hold  back  the  life-giving  water. 


This   mountain    slope   was  logged   over   many   years  ago.      Observe   that   it   does   not 
reproduce   forest   cover,    but   remains   a    bare,    parched   region,    at   the   mercy    of 
-.   .,  sudden  flood-  and ,  sunurier  heat.    , 


—  68  — 

against  the  needs  of  the  dry  season.  Wherever  the  forests  have  been 
cut  away,  we  are  treated  each  spring  to  destructive  floods,  as  has  been 
many  times  proven  in  the  valleys  of  those  great  rivers  draining  the  sites 


;¥.*^A>*!^ 


'^m^j^^j^k-'k 


'Z  o 
^-  o 


lb 


of  the  old  pine  forests  in  the  East.  Contrariwise,  in  California,  where 
the  necessities  of  irrigation  cause  the  people  to  pay  great  attention  to 
such  matters,  it  has  been  found  by  actual  measurement  that  the  stream- 
flow  has  increased  twenty-five  per  cent  since  the  establishment  of  efficient 
I>rotection  for  the  forest  cover. 


—  '69  — 

Since  these  things  are  so,  it  follows  naturally  that  sooner  or  later 
nations  would  see  through  the  haze  of  immediate  expediency  to  the  vital 
truth,  forced  home  boldly  on  the  individual  camper.  From  this  realiza- 
tion would  come  a  system  of  forestry. 

In  Switzerland  we  find  the  earliest  intelligent  treatment  of  the  ques- 
tion. Switzerland's  mountainous  situation  would  have  rendered  her 
peculiarly  liable  to  complete  extinction  by  flood,  avalanche  and  the 
erosion  of  the  agricultural  soil,  once  the  natural  protection  was  removed. 
But  to-day  Switzerland  is  prosperous  and  very  much  alive.  Over  one 
thousand  years  ago  she  possessed  a  forest  system,  and  had  developed  a 
scientific  forestry  by  the  fifteenth  century.  As  early  as  Louis  XIV. 
France  awoke  to  the  fact  that  her  forests  and  her  life  were  draining 
away  together.  But  it  was  too  late.  To-day  she  is  spending  $34  an 
acre  to  reforest  her  watersheds.  The  same  experience  is  costing  Italy 
$20  an  acre.  Italy  is  not  a  wealthy  nation;  yet  she  is  appropriating 
cheerfully  this  enormous  sum  in  the  realization  that  on  it  depends  the 
question  as  to  whether  or  not  she  w411  have  to  strike  her  tents.  If  we 
of  the  United  States  were  called  upon  to  replace  at  even  Italy's  figure 
the  trees  now  growing  on  the  watersheds  protected  by  our  reserves,  we 
should  have  to  spend  about  three  billion  dollars! 

Only  a  few  years  ago  the  forest  was  our  enemy  here  in  America. 
Every  step  of  the  way  must  be  cleared  by  the  pioneer 's  axe  and  guarded 
by  his  rifle.  A  tree  was  a  foe  to  be  got  rid  of  as  expeditiously  as 
possible.  To  ingrained  and  inherited  hostility  succeeded  indifference, 
which  is  but  just  beginning  to  yield  ground  to  a  more  enlightened  senti- 
ment. This  enlightened  sentiment  further  encounters  determined  and 
unscrupulous  opposition  from  the  land-grabbers,  the  lumber  stealers, 
the  candidates  for  free  grazing,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  various  pirates 
and  parasites  that  prey  upon  and  cling  to  the  rich  spoils  of  our  public 
domain. 

OUR  NEIGHBOR'S  FORESTS. 

The  Government  of  British  Columbia  has  put  into  forest  reserves  at 
one  strike  a  hundred  and  fifty  million  acres — five  eighths  of  all  the  land 
in  the  province.  In  British  Columbia  the  lumberman  who  wishes  to 
cut  trees  must  deal  with  the  Government,  whose  enlightened  policy, 
giving  the  people  the  control  of  tlieir  timber  resources,  is  carried  out 
by  the  local  government  of  the  province,  unlike  some  of  our  Western 
States,  which  hang  back  in  sullen  protest  while  salvation  is  forced  upon 
them  by  a  distant  national  authority. 


—  70  — 


CALIFORNIA  TAN  OAKS. 

One  of  the  most  shocking  sights  in  the  waste  of  the  fuel  resources  of 
this  State  is  the  method  of  harvesting  tanbark.  Thousands  of  square 
miles  of  our  north  coast  region  were  covered  by  fine  oak  trees.  To  get 
the  bark  the  trees  are  first  cut  down  and  then  peeled.  The  bark  is  taken 
out  by  wagons  or  pack  animals  and  sold  by  the  cord.  But  the  trees 
themselves — the  massive  trunks  and  limbs — are  left  to  rot  unseen  in 
the  undergrowth  or  to  feed  a  forest  fire.  Millions  of  feet  of  solid  oak 
timber  w^ere  thus  destroyed"  every  year.  The  lumber  corporations,  in 
buying  up  timber  land,  figure  the  oak  trees  in  cords  of  tanhark — the 
trees  themselves  count  as  nothing.  The  profit  on  the  bark  is  not  large, 
as  it  takes  a  deal  of  labor  to  "'et  it  out.      [e.  h.] 


A  CONTINENT  DESPOILED. 

Rudolf  Cronau  is  a  well-known  artist  and  writer,  of  German  ancestry.  Under 
the  above  title  he  has  written  a  vivid  article  in  the  American  Magazine  for  April, 
with  the  following  introduction. 

On  my  writing-desk  lies  a  pile  of  photographs,  some  taken  with  my 
own  camera,  some  obtained  from  friends  or  through  the  courtesy  of  the 
United  States  Forest  Service  and  the  Geological  Survey.  Besides,  there 
are  maps  and  papers  covered  with  statistic  figures. 

If  you  look  over  this  collection,  you  will  be  struck  with  horror,  for 
these  views  disclose  scenes  so  repulsive,  that,  if  they  were  not  photo- 
graphs, you  would  believe  them  products  of  the  sickly  brain  of  some 
artist  like  the  famous  Belgian  painter  "Wuerz,  or  the  Russian  Were- 
schagin,  who,  with  cruel  pleasure,  indulged  in  portraying  only  the  most 
unpleasant  and  disgusting  scenes  of  this  world. 

Let  us  take  up  a  few  of  these  photographs. 

Here  we  have  the  gloomy  view  of  a  forest  destroyed  by  fire.  As  far 
as  the  eye  can  penetrate  the  picture,  you  see  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  straight  black  trunks,  pointing  as  so  many  big  needles  toward  heaven. 
There  is  not  a  limb  left  on  one  of  the  trees.  Everj^  branch  is  eaten 
away.  And  not  a  living  thing  is  seen  in  this  dreadful  wilderness,  nor 
will  anything  flourish  there  for  years  to  come. 

This  second  picture  discloses  another  scene  of  devastation ;  a  primeval 
forest  as  it  was  left  by  lumbermen  after  they  had  taken  out  the  choice 
timber.  What  reckless  barbarians  these  men  have  been !  Everywhere 
we  see  the  unmistakable  evidences  of  frightful  waste.  The  ground  is 
covered  with  fragments  of  noble  trees,  and  with  young  saplings  crushed 
to  pieces  by  fallen  timber. 

The  next  photographs  show  deforested  hillsides  and  farm-lands,  dam- 
aged by  rain-storms  which  gnawed  deep  gullies  into  the  naked  ground 


—  71  — 

and  carried  away  all  fruitful  soil.  And  here  we  have  villages  and  cities 
suffering  by  the  flood  of  rivers.  The  water  reaches  into  the  first  and 
second  stories.  Mills  and  houses  have  been  swept  away  and  landed  on 
distant  places. 

After  that  we  look  into  a  bird 's  nest,  in  which  we  see  a  heap  of  young 
birds,  dead  from  starvation.  Another  of  these  ghastly  photographs 
affords  a  glance  over  rocky  shores,  strewn  with  the  putrid  bodies  of  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  seal  pups,  who  perished  while  waiting  in  vain  for 
the  return  of  their  slain  mothers. 

And  then  we  see  horrible  views  showing  long  rows  of  human  corpses, 
distorted  by  explosions,  burned  by  fire,  crushed  by  fallen  rocks,  or 
maimed  by  railway  engines  or  street  cars. 

There  are  dozens  and  dozens  of  such  repulsive  photographs.  If 
thrown  as  lantern  slides  upon  a  screen  and  explained  by  a  lecturer,  this 
collection  of  views,  maps,  and  figures  would  cause  a  cry  of  terror  among 
the  panic-stricken  audience,  and  many,  shocked  to  the  bottom  of  their 
hearts,  would  leave,  never  to  forget  that  horrible  exhibition. 

You  ask  where  these  photographs  have  been  taken  and  what  the  whole 
collection  means.  As  an  American  citizen,  I  feel  ashamed  to  say  that  all" 
these  views,  without  exception,  were  made  from  actual  scenes  in  the 
United  States,  and  that,  together  with  the  maps  and  statistic  tables,  they 
are  incontrovertible  and  convicting  evidences  of  grave  sins  of  which  our 
nation  is  guilty.  Some  of  the  material  has  been  used  in  preparing  my 
little  book,  "Our  Wasteful  Nation,"  which  is  not  an  outcome  of  yellow 
journalism,  dealing  in  sensations,  but  the  honest  work  of  a  man  who 
loves  this  country  fervently  as  any  native-born  American,  and  who  is 
inspired  by  the  wish  to  help  it  along,  that  it  some  day  may  gain  the 
proud  title,  the  best  among  all  lands. 

Perhaps  native-born  American  writers  are  so  accustomed  to  the 
extravagance  of  American  life,  that  they  fail  to  see  the  amazing  amount 
of  our  prodigality,  which  to  the  stranger  becomes  evident  at  once. 

THE  WATERFOWL. 

Another  of  California 's  resources  that  is  being  rapidly  gathered  to  its 
fathers  is  the  wild  game,  particularly  the  waterfowl.  A  few  years  ago 
they  seemed  as  "inexhaustible"  as  the  leaves  on  the  trees.  But  now 
100,000  licenses  to  hunt  are  taken  out  in  a  year.  If  each  of  these  guns 
should  bring  down  the  limit  for  only  one  day,  it  would  mount  up  to  a 
total  of  millions.  In  the  Sacramento  Valley  four  men  have  killed  700 
geese  in  a  day.  The  "bull  hunters"  of  Merced  County  often  kill  over 
a  hundred  ducks  at  a  single  discharge.  Nearly  every  day  during  the 
hunting  season  at  Los  Banos  a  dray  load  of  ducks  goes  away  by  express, 
packed  in  gunny  sacks,  the  legal  limit — 35  ducks — in  each  sack. 


—  72  — 

Of  course,  this  valuable  resource  will  8oon  disappear  under  such 
onslaughts.  Of  course,  the  "Game  Hogs"  should  be  suppressed,  the 
game  commission  should  be  upheld,  the  laws  should  be  enforced,  so  that 
wild  fowl  will  not  entirely  disappear  from  our  inland  waters. 

The  same  things  may  be  said  of  our  fishes.  It  does  not  seem  possible 
that  so  delicious  and  valuable  a  fish  as  the  salmon  would  be  killed  and 


A  Single  Gunner  and  His  Kill 

In  the  lowlands  of  California  it  is  often  said  that  a  man  can  kill  so  many  birds  he 

"can't  get  them  all  in  one  pile." 

used  for  such  gross  purpose  as  fertilizer ;  yet  in  the  early  days  of  the 
northwest  the  farmers  planted  a  splendid  salmon  under  each  hill  of 
their  hop  fields,  to  enrich  the  soil.  In  1906  the  Alaska  Guano  Company 
converted  18,000  barrels  of  salmon  and  33,500  barrels  of  herring  into 
fertilizer  and  sold  it. 

The  heroic  efforts  of  the  Fish  Commissioners  can  hardly  hope  to  keep 
pace  with  the  reckless  and  illegal  fishing  of  the  fish  hog  and  the  market 
fisherman,    [e.  h.] 


—  73  — 


FUTURE  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

One  of  the  wisest  and  best  informed  men  of  our  country  is  President  Van  Hise 
of  the  University  of  Wisconsin.  Since  this  work  has  been  in  press  (June,  '09)  he 
has  printed  in  the  World's  Work  Magazine  a  comprehensive  article  on  Conser- 
vation, which  closes  as  follows: 

' '  It  would  be  interesting,  but  idle,  to  prophesy  as  to  the  changes  in  our 
social  structure  which  will  result  when  people  begin  to  be  pinched  by 
meagre  soil,  by  lack  of  sufficient  coal  and  wood.  The  people  of  that  time 
will  doubtless  solve  their  problems  as  best  they  may,  and  any  specula- 
tions we  might  make  at  this  time  would  certainly  be  far  from  future 
realization,  but  that  the  problems  of  pinching  economy  will  confront  our 
descendants  is  beyond  all  question ;  and,  therefore,  the  paramount  duty 
remains  to  us  to  transmit  to  our  descendants  the  resources  which  nature 
has  bequeathed  to  us  as  nearly  undiminished  in  amount  as  is  possible, 
consistent  with  living  a  rational  and  frugal  life.  Now  that  we  have 
imposed  upon  us  the  responsibility  of  knowledge,  to  do  less  than  this 
w^ould  be  a  base  communal  crime. ' ' 


A  PRACTICAL  VIEW. 

From  an  article  by  H.  Von  Schon,  a  hard-headed  working  engineer,  in 
Engineering    Magazine,  October,   1908. 

"A  bare,  hard-baked  surface  absorbs  but  little  water;  a  forested 
area  with  its  deep  layer  of  leaves,  brush  and  humus  is  a  sponge  which 
becomes  saturated  with  the  water;  it  is  a  natural  storage  reservoir. 
The  rapid  storm  surface  run-off  erodes  the  top  soil  and  carries  it  in 
suspension,  dropping  it  somewhere  in  the  lower  channels;  timbered 
slopes  obstruct  this  surface  run-off ;  it  gathers  force  but  slowly ;  it  finds 
no  loose  earth  or  gravel  to  carry  along ;  the  foliage  canopy  of  the  trees 
breaks  the  force  of  the  downpouring  rain,  which  reaches  the  ground 
gradually;  finally,  the  snowfall  on  the  open  hillsides  melts  quickly 
under  the  influence  of  the  wind  and  the  sun,  while  that  in  the  forest 
remains  to  melt  gradually  and  then  to  sink  into  the  ground. 

"That  water  waste  with  its  collateral  flood  destructions  of  life  and 
property,  the  constantly  increasing  erosions  of  the  fruitful  top  soil, 
and  the  consequent  impoverishing  of  what  remains,  and  the  sedimenta- 
tion of  river  channels,  are  primarily  caused  by  the  cutting  away  of 
the  forests  in  the  headwater  regions  of  rivers,  was  recognized  and  acted 
upon  by  some  of  the  European  peoples  hundreds  of  years  ago;  little 
Switzerland  enacted  a  forest-conservation  statute  as  early  as  1680, 
which  has  been  enforced  in  a  most  business-like  manner  since;  20  per 
cent  of  the  mountain   republic's   area   is  in   conserved   forests,   some 


—  74  — 

2,000,000  acres;  the  cost  of  maintenance  and  supervision  is  $1.32  and 
the  net  revenue,  $2.25  per  acre  annually. 

''Germany's  forest  area  is  35,000,000  acres;  its  system  of  forest 
preservation  was  inaugurated  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  France 
has  23,000,000  acres  of  forests,  all  under  admirable  preserve  laws.  The 
combined  population  of  these  two  countries  exceeds  that  of  the  United 
States  about  15,000,000.  They  now  expend  annually  on  forest  preser- 
vation some  $11,000,000  and  enjoy  a  net  revenue  of  about  $30,000,000, 
while  the  United  States  forestry  expenditures  last  year  aggregated 
$1,400,000  and  the  revenue  $130,000." 


THE  SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  TREES. 

[Copyright,  1908,  by  the  Ridgeway  Company.] 

Part  of  a  striking  and  vivid  article  by  Emerson  Hough  in  the  May  number 
of  Everybody's  Magazine.  Its  startling  statements  appear  to  be  substantially 
correct.  Everybody's  has  kindly  given  permission  to  use  this  article  and  several 
of  the  pictures  accompanying  it. 

In  fifty  years  we  shall  have  whole  States  as  bare  as  China.  The 
Appalachians  will  be  stripped  to  bedrock.  The  Rockies  will  send 
down  vast  floods,  which  can  not  be  controlled.  The  Canadian  forests 
north  of  the  Great  Lakes  will  be  swept  away.  Our  Middle  West  will 
be  bare.  The  Yazoo  Delta  will  be  ripped  apart,  because  no  levee  will 
be  able  to  stand  the  floods  of  those  days.  We  shall  be  living  in 
crowded  concrete  houses,  and  at  double  the  rent  we  now  pay.  We 
shall  make  vehicles  of  steel,  use  no  wood  on  our  farms.  We  shall 
pay  ten  cents  for  a  newspaper,  flfty  cents  for  a  magazine,  as  much 
for  a  lead  pencil.  Cotton  will  be  immensely  higher.  Beef  will  be 
the  privilege  of  the  few.  Clothing  will  cost  twice  what  it  costs 
to-day.  Like  Chinamen,  our  children  will  rake  the  soil  for  fuel  or 
forage  or  food.  We  shall  shiver  in  a  cold,  and  burn  in  a  heat,  never 
before  felt  in  this  temperate  zone,  meant  by  God  as  a  comfortable 
growing  place  for  splendid  human  beings — UNLESS  WE  WAKE  UP. 

My  friend,  yesterday  a  man  took  the  meat  from  your  table.  To-day 
a  man  burned  down  your  house.    Do  you  care? 

My  friend,  yesterday  this  was  America,  a  rich  and  beautiful  land. 
To-day  much  of  it  is  a  waste  and  a  wilderness.  Is  that  anything  to 
you  and  me? 

My  brother,  in  ten  years  a  man  is  going  to  force  you  to  rent  a  house 
of  him,  and  to  pay  double  what  you  do  now.  In  twenty  years  very  few 
of  us  will  be  able  to  afford  even  rented  houses.  In  thirty  years  America 
will  no  longer  be  able  to  build  houses  of  wood — unless  you  shall  mean- 
time remember  that  you  own  America,  you  who  found  it,  fought  for  it, 


—  75  — 

and  who  ought  to  have  a  pride  in  it,  if  only  for  the  sake  of  what  it 
might  have  been.    Does  this  cause  you  any  personal  concern  ? 

My  friend,  before  a  certain  great  revolution,  the  peasants  who  could 
not  own  timber  of  their  own,  gleaned  firewood  in  the  forests  of  nobles, 
who  swept  their  backs  with  the  lash  of  insolence.  In  England  men  once 
prized  the  scant  right  to  reap  with  peasant's  billhook  or  shepherd's 
crook  as  high  as  they  could  reach  among  the  dead  branches  of  the  trees. 
Soon  you  will  perhaps  fight  among  your  kind  and  kin  for  the  right  to 
glean  in  another  man's  forest  by  hook  or  crook — ^you,  who  but  now 
owned  the  widest  and  richest  forests  in  the  world.    Po  you  care  ? 

In  Europe  one  may  not  fell  a  tree  without  paying,  without  asking. 
As  Americans,  we  laugh  at  such  restrictions.  We  are  fools.  Do  you 
care?  We  call  this  the  land  of  the  free.  It  is  not  such  now.  We 
boasted  of  our  land  of  opportunity  open  to  all  the  world,  but  oppor- 
tunity has  been  taken  from  the  average  man.    Do  you  object  ? 

Do  you  think  such  statements  as  these  sensational,  brutal,  coarse? 
My  brother,  what  pen  shall  be  so  bitter  and  abominable  as  shall  make 
you  writhe  and  say,  ' '  This  is  not  true, ' '  and  then  make  you  look  around 
and  find  that  it  all  is  true,  and  more  is  true  ? 

When  we  first  owned  this  country,  one  half  of  its  total  area  was 
■covered  with  the  grandest  forests  that  ever  grew  in  any  portion  of  the 
world — the  richest,  the  most  useful,  the  most  valuable  for  the  building 
of  a  civilization.  Yes,  we  had  trees.  We  had  forests  that  set  the  first 
writers  who  saw  this  country  wild  with  admiration,  men  who  came  here 
from  reforested  Europe.  They  were  all  ours.  Now  they  are  gone. 
Are  they  reared  in  lasting  structures  of  a  great  civilization?  No;  at 
least  one  half  of  them  are  ashes  or  rotted  mould.  Half  of  what  we  have 
left  to-day  also  will  be  ashes  or  rotted  mould.  They  will  never  rest  in 
the  beams  and  walls  of  abiding  homes. 

Had  we  gone  on  across  this  continent  and  left  the  remnants  of  our 
standing  woods,  we  still  should  have  abundance ;  but  we  have  gone  back 
a  second  and  a  third  time,  gleaning  more  exactly  each  little  bit  of  wood, 
until  we  have  reaped  our  forests  as  sheep  reap  the  grass  lands,  leaving 
nothing  behind  to  grow.  We  have  used  ever-increasing  appliances  for 
speed  and  thoroughness,  to  supply  an  ever-increasing  demand,  at  an 
ever-increasing  price.  We  are  converging  in  ever-increasing  numbers, 
with  an  ever-increasing  zeal,  upon  what  is  left ;  and  in  our  haste  to  get 
it  all,  we  are  permitting  an  ever-increasing  waste  and  ruin  of  the  origi- 
nal supply. 

Our  very  classification  shows  how  sweeping  has  been  the  devastation. 
We  now  classify  as  "pine"  all  sorts  of  pine — Norway  pine.  Jack  pine, 
pitch  pine — although  we  know  that  true  white  pine,  once  the  only  wood 
dignified  with  the  name,  is,  as  a  great  lumber  tree,  practically  an 
extinct  species.     As  to  the  hardwoods,  twenty  years  ago  we  used  only 


—  76  — 

oak,  walnut,  hickory,  cherry,  maple,  birch;  now  we  add  cottonwood, 
beech,  sycamore,  all  sorts  of  gum  trees,  anything  that  will  saw  into  a 
board.  The  desolation  in  the  hardwood  forests  of  the  South  is  as 
unspeakable  as  in  the  pine  forests  of  the  North.  Stave-makers,  tie 
cutters,  vehicle  and  machinery  makers,  have  ripped  open  the  hardwood 
regions  of  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  and  Arkansas,  until  the  end  is  as 
close  there  as  it  is  in  the  vaster  pine  woods. 

On  the  Pacific  coast  we  used  not  long  ago  only  the  finest  of  redwood, 
gradually  then  the  Douglas  fir  or  spruce.  Now  we  cut  in  the  West 
hemlock,  cedar,  lodge-pole  pine,  anything  that  will  hold  a  saw  blade. 
For  a  long  time  we  thought  these  great  Western  stores  exhaustless,  just 
as  not  long  ago  we  thought  the  forests  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin 
exhaustless,  where  now  remains  in  great  part  only  a  horrible  wilderness. 

All  the  time  poorer  species  and  grades  of  timber  are  employed  all 
over  America,  East  and  West.  All  the  time  the  ''estimates"  of  our 
remaining  timber  increase.  But  all  the  time  the  standing  trees  them- 
selves decrease;  all  the  time  the  fires  rage;  all  the  time  the  waste  goes 
on,  immense  logs,  the  butts  of  giant  trees,  being  left  in  the  woods  to 
rot  because  it  does  not  pay  to  get  them  out  of  the  woods  ' '  at  the  present 
price  of  lumber."  All  the  time  the  loss  to  the  people  of  America  goes 
on,  and  the  price  to  the  people  of  America  goes  up ;  and  all  the  time 
the  people  of  America  either  do  not  know  or  do  not  care. 

We  ought  to  care,  and  if  we  know  the  facts  no  doubt  we  should  care. 
What,  then,  are  some  of  the  facts?  Plenty  of  facts,  and  very  obvious 
ones,  lie  at  hand  for  any  one  interested  in  any  sort  of  building  or 
manufacture  requiring,  the  use  of  lumber.  What  was  $8  or  $10  is  now 
worth  $25  to  $30  a  thousand.  Ordinary  clear  building  and  finishing 
lumber  costs  from  $30  to  $125  a  thousand.  The  price  of  all  lumber  has 
in  five  years  risen  over  fifty  per  cent.  We  use  lumber  now  that  twenty 
years  ago  would  have  been  rejected  with  scorn  by  any  builder.  Yet 
prices  are  going  up,  and  still  up ;  and  the  lumbermen  wish  these  prices 
*' protected,"  and  ask  that  the  Sherman  law  be  revoked.  In  spite  of 
these  facts,  the  professional  optimist  in  lumber  attempts  to  soothe  us 
with  the  assurance  that  there  is  plenty  of  timber  ' '  farther  west ' ' ;  that 
it  will  last  ''indefinitely"  at  the  "present  rate." 

But  the  lumberman  bases  all  his  timber  estimates  on  the  present  rate 
of  cutting  and  on  the  present  rate  of  demand.  True,  no  one  can 
prophesy  or  estimate  the  accelerated,  the  cumulative  demand  of  the 
future.  Decade  after  decade  of  our  past  has  shown  us  that  we  could 
not  dream  big  enough  to  cover  the  actual  figures  of  this  demand.  Yet 
this  unestimated  factor  is  the  element  of  danger  for  the  future. 

The  lumberman  does  not  figure  on  the  million  or  more  of  immigrants 
we  take  in  each  year  to  house,  not  to  mention  an  occasional  American 
native  born.     Worst  and  most  absurd  of  all,  he  figures  on  the  timber 


—  77  — 

supply  lasting  on  the  basis  of  its  all  being  used.  Yet  of  all  the  timber 
now  left  standing  in  America,  to  represent  our  entire  future  supply, 
this  lumberman,  judged  hy  his  record,  will  use  less  than  one  half.  The 
other  half  will  never  be  taken  out  of  the  woods  at  all.  Three  fourths 
of  that  half  may  never  even  be  cut,  but  may  be  set  on  fire  and  burned 
as  it  stands.  Much  as  we  had  in  forest  resources  in  the  past,  we  never 
could  afford  to  have  lumbering  operations  destroy  as  much  as  they 
sawed.  But  that  is  what  they  did.  What  should  be  our  attitude  to-day 
toward  the  threatening  destruction  of  one  half  of  our  alarmingly  small 
remaining  supply? 

Last  year  we  cut  nearly  forty  billion  (40,000,000,000)  feet  of  lumber, 
board  measure.  It  may  be  interesting  to  know  in  wh^t  proportions  the 
different  states  furnished  this  supply.  In  relative  order  a  partial  list 
is  as  follows :  Washington,  Louisiana,  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  J\lississippi, 
Arkansas,  Minnesota,  Texas,  Pennsylvania,  Oregon,  California,  North 
Carolina,  and  so  down.  To-day  Washington  furnishes  11.5  per  cent  of 
our  lumber,  and  Louisiana  7.4  per  cent.  Let  us  look  now  at  some  of 
the  demands  for  trees  that  at  first  might  seem  unimportant. 

Our  railroads  are  said  to  use  one  third  of  the  industrial  timber  cut. 
They  require,  on  the  basis  of  present  demand,  100,000,000  ties  per 
year,  and  they  are  always  wondering  where  they  are  going  to  get  them. 
The  demand  is  for  better  ties,  not  poorer.  Bad  ties  mean  wholesale 
murder,  forfeiture  of  mail  contracts,  reduced  dividends.  A  tie  contains 
about  thirty-five  feet  of  wood.  All  sorts  of  wood  are  now  being  used 
for  ties,  from  hemlock  at  twenty-eight  cents  to  white  oak  at  fifty-one 
cents,  an  average  of  forty-seven  cents  per  tie.  Suppose  we  could  cut 
one  hundred  ties  to  the  acre ;  we  should  require  a  million  acres  a  year 
for  ties.  Hardwood  grows,  under  favorable  conditions,  a  little  more 
than  forty  cubic  feet  per  acre  per  year.  Not  a  very  fast  crop,  is  it? 
Railroad  men  sincerely  wish  it  might  be  faster.  The  Santa  Fe  road 
has  recently  arranged  to  plant  a  few  thousand  acres  with  eucalyptus, 
from  which  it  will  some  time  make  ties.  Each  road  now  has  its  tie 
lands.    These  lands  no  longer  furnish  a  public  supply  of  lumber. 

Alongside  the  ties  run  the  telegraph  poles,  not  so  perishable,  but 
requiring  continual  renewal.  Two  years  ago  we  cut  3,526,875  poles 
over  twenty  feet  in  length.  Three  fifths  of  these  were  cedar,  28  per  cent 
chestnut.  We  cut  hundreds  of  thousands  of  smaller  poles,  also,  not  to 
mention  vast  quantities  of  what  is  called  lodge-pole  pine,  for  other  uses. 
We  annually  reap  for  telegraph  and  telephone  poles  somewhere  between 
three  and  four  million  acres  of  land. 

Our  tanneries  two  years  ago  required  1,370,000  cords  of  bark.  In 
the  same  year  we  cut  11,858,260  shingles  and  3,812,807  laths.  This 
represents  one  of  the  real  savings  in  lumber  manufacture — the  utiliza- 
tion of  material  much  of  which  otherwise  would  go  to  waste.    Then  we 


78  — 


had  to  timber  our  mines,  and  for  that  we  used  165,000,000  cubic  feet, 
not  board  measure,  much  of  which  w^as  the  best  of  hardwood. 

If  you  stood  on  the  top  of  a  tower  in  the  greatest  hardwood  forests  of 
the  South,  one  sweep  of  the  scythe  of  civilization  would  mow  it  farther 
than  you  could  see,  for  one  month's  use  in  vehicles,  manufactured  furni- 
ture, and  farm  implements.  Prices  for  this  kind  of  wood  have  risen 
from  25  to  65  per  cent  since  1899.  In  seven  years  the  production  of 
hardwood  has  fallen  off  15  per  cent ;  and  those  were  the  six  years  of  its 
greatest  demand. 

There  is  absolutely  no  hope  for  vehicle  and  machine  makers  except  a 
more  careful  use  of  the  hardwood  forests  of  the  South  and  the  South- 
east; nor  indeed  can 
that  be  called  a  solution 
now.  In  these  forests 
grow  also  many  softer 
woods,  once  scorned. 
Continually  we  adjust, 
compromise,  become 
European  and  not 
American.  Tight-barrel 
cooperage  is  a  heavy 
drain  on  white  oak.  In 
1906  we  made  267  mil- 
lion tight-barrel  staves. 
We  sent  to  Europe  last 
year  about  five  million 
dollars'  worth  of  white 
oak  staves.  Meantime, 
California  can  not  get 
casks  for  her  wine,  be- 
cause white  oak  now 
costs  too  much  to  ship  to 
California.  She  is  trying  redwood  for  wine  casks  now,  and  grumbling 
mightily.  Slack-barrel  cooperage  in  elm,  gum,  beech,  basswood,  and 
fourteen  other  woods  not  long  ago  thought  worthless,  cut  1,097,063,000 
staves  in  one  year.  All  these  little  demands  foot  up  an  enormous  and 
menacing  total  in  acreage. 

The- highest  estimate  of  our  remaining  hardwood  is  fovir  hundred 
billion  feet.  For  lumber,  ties,  posts,  manufactures,  fuel,  etc.,  we  use 
twenty-five  billion  feet  per  annum  or  more.  At  that  rate  it  will  take  us 
sixteen  years  to  use  up  all  the  rest  of  our  hardwood — if  we  do  not  burn 
it,  and  if  the  demand  remains  the  same !  A  pleasant  prospect,  is  it  not  T 
Some  one  has  figured  that  a  big  Sunday  newspaper  needs  twenty 
acres  of  pulp  wood  to  make  the  paper  for  one  edition.     The  Chicago 


Waste    of    timber    in    the    Yellowstone    Park, 
descendants   will   bitterly   rue    this   loss. 


Oui 


—  79  —  ■ 

Tribune,  a  chance  instance,  uses  200,000  pounds  of  paper  each  Sunday, 
or  400,000  each  week.  Do  your  own  multiplying.  We  used  of  domestic 
spruce  alone  for  pulp  wood  in  one  year  1,785,680  cords.  The  average 
stand  of  spruce  pulp  wood  in  the  regions  where  it  is  cut  is  probably 
about  ten  cords  per  acre;  so  that  of  such  spruce  land  we  require  at 
least  178,500  acres  annually.  A  ton  of  paper  takes  about  two  cords  of 
spruce  in  the  making — to  be  exact,  about  1,750  pounds  of  paper  pulp. 
We  use  other  woods  for  pulp  now,  hemlock,  balsam,  pine,  poplar; 


Slaughter  of  the  forest.  An  old  burn.  Picture  the  frightful  waste  of  good  wood  when 
a  great  forest  region  is  reduced  to  this  by  repeated  burnings.  It  has  never 
been  cut. 

3,661,176  cords  was  our  total  for  1906.  We  used  in  that  year  2,327,844 
tons  of  pulp.  Since  each  ton  probably  cost  on  the  average  two  cords  of 
some  sort  of  wood,  not  allowing  anything  for  waste,  there  were  over  four 
million  cords  cut  somewhere,  mostly  in  the  United  States ;  which  means 
something  like  a  million  acres  a  year  for  pulp.  Call  it  a  half  million 
for  close  measure.  Do  some  figuring.  If  it  costs  twenty  acres  a  Sunday, 
or  forty  acres  a  week,  or  2,080  acres  a  year  to  print  one  daily  news- 
paper, what  does  it  cost  in  acreage  to  print  all  the  newspapers  in  all 
the  cities  and  towns  of  America?  Add  to  this  the  enormous  editions 
of  our  magazines.  Add  to  this  the  paper  used  in  books.  The  total 
staggers  the  imagination,  and  yet  the  amount  of  timber  cut  for  pulp 


—  80  — 

in  the  United  States  annually  is  less  than  5  per  cent  of  what  is  cut 
for  lumber. 

It  would  seem  that  we  can  not  afford  much  longer  to  read.  Neither 
shall  we  long  be  able  to  write.  Last  year  we  made  more  than  315,000,000 
lead  pencils.  A  lead  pencil  is  not  very  large,  but  the  total  number  of 
lead  pencils  required  7,300,000  cubic  feet  of  cedar.  We  have  cedar 
enough  to  last  us  just  twelve  years. 

More  than  100,000  acres  of  timber  in  the  whole  United  States  are  cut 


Slaughter  of  the  forest.  The  trees  are  chopped  down,  peeled,  and  then  the  whole 
surface  of  the  forest  is  burnt  to  the  hone,  so  that  the  logs  may  be  easily  and 
cheaply   dragged   out. 

over  every  working  day.     We  use  many  times  more  timber  per  capita 
than  any  other  nation. 

We  have  left  not  over  450,000,000  acres  bearing  commercial  timber. 
Cast  up  in  your  mind  some  of  the  small  demands  of  industry  noted 
above.  Multiply  this  by  three  or  four  to  represent  the  total,  including 
all  sorts  of  sawn  lumber.  Remember  that  you  are  dealing  in  terms  of 
millions  of  acres.  Divide  450,000,000  by  your  total  number  of  millions 
of  known  demand.  What  is  the  result?  Do  you  find  it  pleasant?  Do 
you  remain  willing  to  listen  to  the  charming  of  those  who  are  either 
ignorant  or  hypocritical  in  their  "estimates?" 


81  — 


THE  CONVENTION  OF  GOVERNORS. 


THE  first  conference  of  the  Governors  of  the  United  States 
and  Territories  was  held  at  the  White  House,  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  during  the  three  days  beginning  May  13, 
1908. 

The  East  Room  was  prepared  for  the  occasion,  its  severe 
simplicity  somewhat  brightened  by  draperies  of  green  velvet 
on  the  walls,  about  the  platform  on  which  were  seated  the  pre- 
siding officer,  the  speakers,  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  Presi- 
dent's  Cabinet.  Two  great  maps,  the  largest  ever  made  by 
mechanical  means,  hung  on  the  east  wall.  One  showed  the 
timber  resources  of  the  United  States,  while  the  other  showed 
the  mineral  deposits.  Between  these  maps  was  an  arrangement 
for  illustrating  the  different  phases  of  conservation  by  means 
of  superb  transparencies.  On  the  floor  special  chairs  were 
arranged  in  semi-circles  for  the  Governors;  while  to  the  rear 
and  at  the  sides  were  seats  for  the  Governor's  advisers  and 
the  guests. 

Practically  all  the  states  and  territories  were  represented; 
it  was  a  historic  occasion ;  nearly  every  speaker  laid  stress  on 
the  declaration  that  the  meeting  was  an  epoch-making  one,  that 
from  it  would  spring  an  organization  of  the  Governors  that 
through  its  deliberations  and  the  weight  of  its  opinions  would 
exercise  through  the  years  to  come  a  tremendous  influence 
over  the  destinies  and  the  affairs  of  the  nation. 

Some  extracts  from  the  most  notable  of  the  many  addresses 
delivered  at  this  famous  conference  will  be  appropriate  here  as 
a  fittino"  close  to  our  handbook  on  Conservation.- 


-NR 


—  82  — 

SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  MEETING. 

The  savage  knows  and  confesses  his  dependence  upon  the  forces  of 
nature.  His  whole  life  is  circumscribed  by  the  resources  of  forest, 
field,  and  stream.  Indeed,  he  feels  himself  a  part  of  nature,  and 
scarcely  separates  his  fate  from  that  of  his  surroundings.  The  game 
of  the  prairie,  the  forest,  and  the  river,  the  berries  and  herbs  in  their 
season,  and  the  living  waters  supply  him  with  food  and  drink.  With 
the  changing  seasons  he  moves  from  place  to  place,  pursuing  plenty. 
He  winters  in  rude  huts  filled  with  smoke  from  fires  of  fallen  wood, 
hardly  less  at  the  mercy  of  the  cold  than  are  the  hibernating  animals. 
In  the  spring  he  wakes  with  nature,  and  his  summers  are  prosperous 
and  happy  only  as  the  wild  crops  of  field  and  forest  are  plentiful.  He 
rises  and  lies  down  with  the  sun.  He  survives  only  as  he  observes  nature 
and  fits  himself  to  her  ways. 

But  as  savagery  gives  place  to  civilization,  man  frees  himself  more  and 
more  from  those  bonds  which  bound  him  so  closely  to  nature.  Slowly 
and  painfully  at  first,  and  then  far  more  rapidly  and  easily,  he  learns 
to  control  his  material  surroundings.  He  breaks  the  prairie  with  the 
plow,  makes  the  beasts  of  the  field  his  servants,  strikes  the  pick  into  the 
mountain  and  the  axe  into  the  veteran  of  the  forest.  He  now  no 
longer  waits  upon  the  seasons.  He  builds  himself  a  house  against  the 
cold  and  warms  himself  to  the  point  of  comfort  in  the  midst  of  the 
winter  blast.  Instead  of  passively  accepting  the  wild  fruits  as  they 
ripen  he  compels  the  soil  to  yield  a  harvest  a  millionfold  more  abundant, 
and  this  harvest  he  stores  up  against  days  of  want.  Instead  of  migrat- 
ing with  the  birds  he  fixes  his  home  where  he  will,  and  pursues  his 
work  and  his  pleasure  in  his  own  time. 

Discovery  and  invention  place  new  implements  in  his  hands.  With 
his  intelligence  quickened  and  his  body  trained  by  new  experience  and 
new  occupations,  he  continues  to  increase  his  mastery  over  time,  tem- 
perature, and  place.  New  material  riches  become  available.  He  is  able 
to  satisfy  his  wants  more  readily  and  more  certainly  than  ever  before. 
The  standard  of  his  living  is  raised.  He  now  possesses  and  enjoys, 
besides  all  that  his  fathers  required,  a  host  of  things  of  which  they  knew 
nothing.  Wants  multiply  with  prosperity,  till  his  life  becomes  highly 
complex.  He  is  lord  of  nature,  because  he  has  learned  how  to  appro- 
priate her  resources. 

But  if  the  resources  of  nature  should  fail,  where  Avould  be  his 
mastery  then? 

This  is  the  point  ^vhich  we  commonly  overlook.  Man  has  laid  nature 
under  tribute,  and  has  become  powerful  because  nature  was  rich. 
Impoverish  nature  and  her  tribute  stops.     Ingenuity,  capacity,  labor. 


—  83  — 

are  incapable  of  extracting  wealth  from  the  gutted  mine,  from  the  lire- 
scorched  brush  land,  from  the  sun-baked  stream  bed,  from  the  impover- 
ished soil.  Civilization  is  achieved  by  the  use  of  the  resources  of  nature ; 
it  can  endure  no  longer  than  the  resources  upon  which  it  depends. 

Living  as  we  do  to-day  in  the  midst  of  conveniences  which  give  us 
apparent  independence  of  nature,  it  is  almost  inevitable  that  we  should 
lose  sight  of  this  truth.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  that  we,  standing 
at  the  height  of  western  civilization,  are  in  fact  vastly  more  dependent 
upon  tributary  nature  than  is  the  savage  of  the  South  Seas.  Suppose 
the  coal  supply  should  give  out  in  the  middle  of  winter  ?  Suppose  a 
huge  conflagration  should  sweep  our  forests  from  the  hillsides?  Sup- 
pose sudden  floods  should  lay  waste  our  fertile  farm  lands,  scoring  them 
with  gullies  or  heaping  them  with  sand  ?  Would  not  any  single  one  of 
these  calamities  bring  upon  us  incalculable  losses  and  suffering? 

And  yet  these  suppositions  are  not  imaginary.  We  need  to  look  only 
a  very  little  way  ahead,  as  things  are  going  now,  in  order  to  see  them 
realized,  in  effect.  True,  the  failure  of  our  resources  will  not  come 
suddenly,  and  such  of  our  resources  as  can  be  renewed  need  never  fail 
if  we  use  them  wisely.  But  the  exhaustible  resources,  chief  among 
which  are  the  mines,  are  coming  to  an  end  as  certainly  as  if  the  end 
were  to-day,  while  those  resources  whose  exhaustion  is  due  not  to 
necessity,  but  to  folly,  have  no  future  unless  we  insure  it  by  our  own 
provision. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  question  how  we  shall  make  the  best 
use  of  our  natural  resources,  renewable  and  not  renewable,  is  a  pressing 
question  of  the  hour.  Where  renewal  is  impossible,  there  is  need  of  the 
strictest  economy ;  and  where  renewal  can  be  secured  by  prudence  and 
foresight,  the  very  existence  of  the  nation  demands  that  prudence  and 
foresight  be  exercised. 

This  is  the  significance  of  the  Conference  of  Governors  on  the  Con- 
servation of  Natural  Eesources  held  at  the  White  House,  May  13-15, 
1908,  which  took  up  for  the  first  time  the  problem  of  conservation  in 
all  its  details. 

Tbeadv^eljj  Cleveland.  Jr. 

A  NEW  PATRIOTIC  IMPULSE. 

The  World's  Work  Magazine  summed  up  the  Governor's  Conference  in  its 
editorial  correspondence  as  follows. 

It  was  the  most  notable  company  of  men  that  has  come  together  in 
our  country  in  recent  times.  The  official  head  of  the  nation,  the 
Cabinet,  the  Supreme  Court,  certain  members  of  Congress,  the  heads 
of  the  states,  and,  besides  these,  many  of  the  most  distinguished  scientific 
men  that  we  have  and  men  of  a  sound  grasp  of  public  subjects  who 


—  84  — 

came  as  "advisers"  to  the  Governors — two  or  three  of  the  most  note- 
worthy citizens  of  every  state — among  them  the  presidents  of  many  of 
our  foremost  universities  and  schools  of  science;  and,  besides  these, 
representatives  of  all  the  most  important  national  organizations  of 
scientific  and  commercial  bodies. 

About  the  general  proposition  that  this  extraordinary  meeting  was 
called  to  emphasize  there  was  no  difference  of  opinion.  And  the  wealth 
of  facts  that  were  presented  put  the  subject  in  every  mind  in  a  new 
way,  and  aroused  every  man  to  an  argent  purpose.  When  one  subject 
was  put  into  every  mind  as  the  foremost  subject  of  public  action  that 
this  generation  can  have,  and  was  so  presented  and  emphasized  as  to  win 
universal  assent  and  to  arouse  a  patriotic  purpose,  then  all  the  machin- 
ery of  publicity,  of  exhortation,  and  of  public  action  that  a  democracy 
can  have  was  put  in  action  at  one  stroke. 

The  scientific  papers  presented  to  the  Conference,  giving  exact  data 
about  agriculture,  streams,  forests,  coal,  and  all  similar  subjects,  were 
the  most  practical  and  helpful  literature  of  waste  and  of  methods  of 
conservation  ever  put  together.  They  will  become  a  classic  description 
of  our  great  resources  as  they  now  are. 

The  brief  speeches  by  many  of  the  Governors  were  in  the  nature  of 
an  ' '  experience  meeting. ' '  They  told  of  the  work  that  the  state  govern- 
ments are  doing  to  save  and  to  reclaim.  And  the  resolutions  adopted 
called  on  the  government,  local  and  national,  and  on  the  people  to 
preserve  our  national  wealth. 

Every  man  came  away  from  the  most  noteworthy  gathering  that  he 
ever  attended,  with  a  new  love  of  his  country,  a  new  attitude  toward  it, 
a  new  conscience  about  the  land,  the  trees,  and  the  streams ;  and  we 
entered  then  on  a  new  era  in  our  national  thought  and  in  our  attitude 
toward  our  land. 


ANDREW  CARNEGIE. 

The  ironmaster  of  Pittsburg,  who  has  scattered  libraries  over  this  continent 
like  the  sands  of  the  sea,  delivered  a  striking  address  from  which  only  a  few 
extracts  can  be  given. 

In  view  of  the  sobering  facts  presented,  the  thoughtful  man  is  forced 
to  realize,  first,  that  our  production  and  consumption  of  minerals  are 
increasing  much  more  rapidly  than  our  population;  and,  second,  that 
our  methods  are  so  faulty  and  extravagant  that  the  average  waste  is 
very  great,  and  in  coal  almost  as  great  as  the  amount  consumed.  The 
serious  loss  of  life  in  the  mines  is  a  feature  that  can  no  longer  be 
overlooked.  Nor  can  we  fail  to  realize  that  the  most  useful  minerals 
will  shortly  become  scarce,  and  may  soon  reach  prohibitive  cost  unless 
steps  to  lessen  waste  are  taken  in  the  interest  of  the  future. 


—  85  — 

I  have  for  many  years  been  impressed  with  the  steady  depletion  of 
our  iron  ore  supply.  It  is  staggering  to  learn  that  our  once  supposed 
ample  supply  of  rich  ores  can  hardly  outlast  the  generation  now  appear- 
ing, leaving  only  the  leaner  ores  for  the  later  years  of  the  century.  It 
is  my  judgment,  as  a  practical  man  accustomed  to  dealing  with  those 
material  factors  on  which  our  national  prosperity  is  based,  that  it  is 
time  to  take  thought  for  the  morrow. 

We  are  nationally  in  the  position  of  a  large  family  receiving  a  rich 
patrimony  from  thrifty  parents  deceased  intestate;  the  President  may 
be  likened  to  the  eldest  son,  and  the  Governors  to  younger  brothers, 
jointly  responsible  for  the  minors ;  the  experts  assembled  may  be  likened 
to  the  family  solicitors.  Now,  the  first  duty  of  such  a  family  is  to  take 
stock  of  its  patrimony;  the  next  to  manage  the  assets  in  such  manner 
that  none  shall  be  wasted,  that  all  be  put  to  the  greatest  good  of  the 
living  and  their  descendants.  Now,  we  have  just  begun  to  take  stock 
of  our  national  patrimony ;  and  it  is  with  the  deepest  sense  of  responsi- 
bility imposed  upon  me  by  the  invitation  to  this  meeting,  to  the  nation, 
and  to  coming  generations  of  all  time,  that  I  speak  as  one  of  the  junior 
solicitors.  In  my  opinion,  we  should  watch  closely  all  the  assets  and 
begin  both  to  save  and  to  use  them  more  wisely. 

Let  us  begin  with  iron :  We  must  in  all  possible  ways  lessen  the  * 
demands  upon  it,  for  it  is  with  iron  ore  we  are  least  adequately  pro- 
vided. One  of  the  chief  uses  of  this  metal  is  connected  with  transporta- 
tion, mainly  by  rail.  Moving  1,000  tons  of  heavy  freight  by  rail 
requires  an  80-ton  locomotive  and  twenty-five  20-ton  steel  cars  (each 
of  40-ton  capacity),  or  580  tons  of  iron  and  steel,  with  an  average  of, 
say,  ten  miles  of  double  track  (with  90-pound  rails),  or  317  tons 
additional ;  so  that,  including  switches,  frogs,  fish-plates,  spikes,  and 
other  incidentals,  the  carrier  requires  the  use  of  an  equal  weight  of 
metal.  The  same  freight  may  be  moved  by  water  by  means  of  100  to 
250  tons  of  metal,  so  that  the  substitution  of  water-carriage  for  rail- 
carriage  would  reduce  the  consumption  of  iron  by  three  fourths  to 
seven  eighths  in  this  department.  At  the  same  time  the  consumption 
of  coal  for  motive  power  would  be  reduced  50  to  75  per  cent,  with  a 
corresponding  reduction  in  the  coal  required  for  smelting.  No  single 
step  open  to  us  to-day  would  do  more  to  check  the  drain  on  iron  and 
coal  than  the  substitution  of  water-carriage  for  rail-carriage  wherever 
practicable,  and  the  careful  adjustment  of  the  one  to  the  other  through- 
out the  country. 


NATURAL  GAS. 

Dr.  White,  the  State  Geologist  of  West  Virginia,  presented  in  vivid  fashion  a 
picture  of  the  waste  of  our  purest  form  of  fuel.  This  is  of  interest  to  us  in  Cali- 
fornia, because  we,  too,  have  great  fields  of  petroleum  and  natural  gas  being  used 
in  similar  ways. 

A  great  geologist  once  said,  ' '  The  nations  that  have  coal  and  iron  will 
rule  the  world."  Bountiful  nature  has  dowered  the  American  people 
with  a  heritage  of  both  coal  and  iron  richer  by  far  than  that  of  any 
other  political  division  of  the  earth. 

It  was  formerly  supposed  that  China  would  prove  the  great  store- 
house from  which  the  other  nations  could  draw  their  supplies  of  carbon 
when  their  own  had  become  exhausted,  but  the  recent  studies  of  a 
brilliant  American  geologist  in  that  far-off  land,  rendered  possible  by 
the  generosity  of  the  world's  greatest  philanthropist,  tell  a  different 
story.  The  fuel  resources  of  China,  great  as  they  undoubtedly  are, 
have  been  largely  overestimated,  and  Mr.  Willis  reports  that  they  will 
practically  all  be  required  by  China  herself,  and  that  the  other  nations 
can  not  look  to  her  for  this  all-important  element  in  modern  industrial 
life. 

A  simple  glance  at  a  geological  map  of  the  United  States,  will  convince 
any  one  that  nature  has  been  most  lavish  to  us  in  fuel  resources,  for  we 
find  a  series  of  great  coal  deposits  extending  in  well  scattered  fields 
almost  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf, 
while  even  over  much  of  New  England  and  the  coastal  plains,  vast 
areas  of  peat,  the  primal  stage  of  coal,  have  been  distributed.  But  coal 
of  every  variety  from  peat  to  anthracite  is  not  all  of  nature's  fuel  gifts 
to  fortunate  America.  Great  deposits  of  .both  petroleum  and  natural 
gas  occur  in  nearly  every  state  where  coal  exists,  and  in  some  that  have 
no  coal.  What  greater  dowry  of  fuels  could  we  ask  when  w£  find  them 
stored  for  us  Avithin  the  bosom  of  our  mother  earth  in  all  three  of  the 
great  types — coal,  petroleum,  and  natural  gas — only  aAvaiting  the  tap  of 
the  pick  and  drill  to  bring  them  forth  in  prodigal  abundance? 

What  account  can  we  as  a  nation  give  of  our  stewardship  of  such 
vast  fuel  treasures?  Have  we  carefully  conserved  them,  using  only 
what  was  necessary  in  our  domestic  and  industrial  life,  and  transmitting 
the  remainder,  like  prudent  husbandmen,  unimpaired  to  succeeding 
generations]  Or  have  we  greatly  depleted  this  priceless  heritage  of 
power  and  comfort,  and  source  of  world-wide  influence,  by  criminal 
waste  and  wanton  destruction?  The  answer  should  bring  a  blush  of 
shame  to  every  patriotic  American,  for  not  content  with  destro;^ing  our 
magnificent  forests,  the  only  fuel  and  supply  of  carbon  known  to  our 
forefathers.  Ave  are  with  ruthless  hands  and  regardless  of  the  future 
applying  both  torch  and  dynamite  to  the  vastly  greater  resources  of 


—  87  — 

this  precious  carbon  which  provident  nature  has  stored  for  our  use  in 
the  buried  forests  of  the  distant  past.  The  wildest  anarchists  deter- 
mined to  destroy  and  overturn  the  foundations  of  government  could  not 
act  in  a  more  irrational  and  thoughtless  manner  than  have  our  people 
in  permitting  such  fearful  destruction  of  the  very  sources  of  our  power 
and  greatness.  Let  me  enumerate  some  of  the  details  of  this  awful 
waste  of  our  fuel  resources  that  has  been  going  on  with  ever  increasing 
speed  for  the  last  forty  years. 

First,  let  us  consider  how  we  have  wasted  natural  gas,  the  purest 
form  of  fuel,  ideal  in  every  respect,  self -transporting,  only  awaiting 
the  turning  of  a  key  to  deliver  to  our  homes  and  factories  heat  and  light 
and  power.  Partial  nature  has  apparently  denied  this  great  boon  to 
many  other  lands.  It  is  practically  unknown  in  France,  Germany,  and 
Great  Britain,  our  chief  competitors  in  the  world  of  industry.  Even 
wood  and  coal  must  first  be  converted  into  gas  before  they  will  burn, 
but  here  is  a  fuel  of  which  nature  has  given  us  a  practical  monopoly, 
lavish  in  abundance,  already  transmuted  into  the  gaseous  stage  and 
stored  under  vast  pressure  to  be  released  wherever  wanted  at  our 
bidding.  The  record  of  waste  of  this  our  best  and  purest  fuel  is  a 
national  disgrace. 

At  this  very  minute  this  unrivaled  fuel  is  passing  into  the  air  within 
our  domain  from  uncontrolled  gas  wells,  from  oil  wells,  from  giant 
flambeaus,  from  leaking  pipe  lines  and  the  many  other  methods  of  waste 
at  the  rate  of  not  less  than  one  billion  cubic  feet  daily  and  probably 
much  more. 

Very  few  appear  to  realize  either  the  great  importance  of  this  hydro- 
carbon fuel  resource  of  our  country,  or  its  vast  original  quantity.  Some 
of  the  individual  wells,  if  we  may  credit  the  measurements,  have  pro- 
duced this  fuel  at  the  rate  of  70,000.000  cubic  feet  daily,  the  equivalent 
in  heating  value  of  70,000  bushels  of  coal,  or  nearly  12,000  barrels  of 
oil.  In  my  humble  opinion  the  original  amount  of  this  volatile  fuel 
in  the  United  States,  permeating,  as  it  does,  every  undisturbed  geologic 
formation  from  the  oldest  to  the  most  recent,  rivaled  or  even  exceeded 
in  heating  value,  all  of  our  wondrous  stores  of  coal. 

Suppose  that  it  were  possible  for  some  Nero,  inspired  by  a  mania  of 
incendiarism,  to  apply  a  consuming  torch  to  every  bed  of  coal  that  crops 
to  the  surface  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  that  the  entire  coal 
supply  of  the  Union  was  threatened  with  destruction  within  a  very 
few  years,  what  do  you  think  would  happen  ?  Would  our  State  legisla- 
tures sit  undisturbed  panoplied  by  such  a  carnival  of  fire  ?  Would  the 
Governors  of  thirty  states  remain  silent  while  the  demon  of  flame  was 
ravaging  the  coal  resources  of  the  republic  ?  Certainly  not ;  there  would 
be  a  united  effort  by  the  Governors  and  legislatures  of  all  the  states  in 
the  Union  to  stay  the  progress  of  such  a  direful  conflagration ;  even  the 


—  88  — 

sacred  constitutional  barriers  wisely  erected  between  state  and  federal 
authority  would  melt  away  in  the  presence  of  such  an  awful  calamity, 
and  the  mighty  arm  of  the  nation  would  be  invoked  to  help  end  the 
common  peril  to  every  interest.  And  yet  this  imaginary  case  is  an 
actual  one  with  the  best  and  purest  fuel  of  the  country,  equal  probably 
in  quantity  and  value  for  heat,  light,  and  power  to  all  of  our  coal 
resources.  This  blazing  zone  of  destruction  extends  in  a  broad  band 
from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  and  westward  to  the  Pacific,  embracing  in 
its  flaming  pathway  the  most  precious  fuel  possessions  of  a  continent. 
No  one  can  even  approximate  the  extent  of  this  waste.  From  personal 
knowledge  of  conditions  which  exits  in  every  oil  and  gas  field,  I  am 
sure  the  quantity  will  amount  to  not  less  than  one  billion  cubic  feet 
daily,  and  it  may  be  much  more.  The  heating  value  of  a  billion  cubic 
feet  of  natural  gas  is  roughly  equivalent  to  that  of  one  million  bushels 
of  coal.    What  an  appalling  record  to  transmit  to  posterity! 

From  one  well  in  eastern  Kentucky  there  poured  a  stream  of  gas  for 
a  period  of  twenty  years  without  any  attempt  to  shut  it  in  or  utilize  it, 
the  output  of  which,  it  has  been  figured,  was  worth  at  current  prices 
more  than  three  million  dollars.  Practically. the  same  conditions  charac- 
terized the  first  twenty-five  years  of  Pennsylvania's  oil  and  gas  history, 
and  the  quantity  of  wasted  gas  from  thousands  of  oil  and  gas  wells  in 
western  Pennsylvania  is  beyond  computation.  In  my  own  state  of 
West  Virginia,  only  eight  years  ago,  not  less  than  500,000.000  cubic 
feet  of  this  precious  gas  was  daily  escaping  into  the  air  from  two 
counties  alone,  practically  all  of  which  was  easily  preventable,  by  a 
moderate  expenditure  for  additional  casing.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  one  thousand  cubic  feet  of  natural  gas  weighs  48  pounds,  and  that 
6,000  cubic  feet  of  it  would  yield  a  42-gallon  barrel  of  oil  when  con- 
densed, so  that  a  well  flowing  6,000,000  feet  of  gas  is  pouring  into  the 
air  daily  the  equivalent  of  1,000  barrels  of  oil,  what  would  our 
petroleum  kings  think,  if  they  could  see  this  river  of  oil  (for  the 
equivalent  of  a  billion  feet  of  gas  is  more  than  160,000  barrels  of 
petroleum,  and  of  practically  the  same  chemical  composition  as  benzine 
or  gasolene)  rushing  unhindered  to  the  sea?  Would  they  not  spend 
millions  to  check  such  a  frightful  waste  of  this  golden  fluid?  And 
would  they  not  be  the  first  to  appeal  to  the  national  government  for  aid 
in, ending  such  great  destruction  of  property?  And  yet  because  natural 
gas  is  invisible,  and  its  waste  is  not  so  apparent  to  the  eye  as  a  stream 
of  oil,  or  a  burning  coal  mine,  the  agents  of  these  oil  magnates  have  not 
only  permitted  this  destruction  of  the  nation's  fuel  resources  to  con- 
tinue, but  they  have  prevented  by  every  means  in  their  power  the  enact- 
ment of  any  legislation  to  stop  this  frightful  loss  of  the  best  and  purest 
fuel  that  nature  has  sjiven  to  man. 


—  89  — 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  for  every  barrel  of  oil  taken  from  the 
earth  there  have  been  wasted  more  than  ten  times  its  equivalent  in 
either  heating  power,  or  weight  even,  of  this  the  best  of  all  the  fuels, 
and  also  that  much  more  than  half  of  this  frightful  waste  could  have 
been  avoided  by  proper  care  in  oil  production  and  slight  additional 
expenditures. 

In  justice  to  the  great  oil-producing  corporations,  it  must  be  acknowl- 
edged that  they  have  not  permitted  much  waste  of  petroleum  except 
what  has  been  sprayed  into  the  air  by  their  awful  waste  of  gas.  and  also 
that  their  handling  of  petroleum  has  been  from  the  beginning  a  model 
of  business  economy  and  management.  The  great  mistake  of  the  oil 
producing  interests  has  been  in  not  properly  apprehending  the  enor- 
mous fuel  value  of  the  natural  gas  they  were  destroying,  and  in  not 
demanding  legislation  for  its  protection  instead  of  successfully 
throttling  and  preventing  it  in  every  state  of  the  Union  except  one — 
Indiana.  When  the  people  of  that  great  state  awoke  to  the  fact  that 
their  richest  mineral  possession  was  being  rapidly  wasted,  they  rose  to 
the  occasion,  and  although  it  was  largely  a  case  of  "locking  the  stable 
door  after  the  horse  had  been  stolen,"  they  effectually  prevented  any 
further  useless  waste  of  natural  gas.  This  Indiana  statute  which  has 
been  declared  constitutional  by  our  highest  courts,  says  in  effect  to  the 
oil  producers:  "You  can  not  take  the  oil  from  the  ground  where  nature 
has  safely  stored  it,  until  you  provide  a  method  of  utilizing  the  accom- 
panying gas,  or  volatile  oil  as  well,"  and  it  also  says  to  both  the  pro- 
ducer and  consumer  of  natural  gas,  that  it  is  against  "public  policy  to 
waste  this  valuable  fuel,  and  that  it  will  not  be  permitted  to  either 
party."  This  Indiana  statute  for  the  conservation  of  petroleum  and 
natural  gas  should  be  enacted  into  law  in  every  state  where  this  precious 
fuel  exists ;  and  why  has  it  not  been  done  ? 


JAMES  J.  HILL. 

The  railroad  magnate  of  the  Great  Northern  is  recognized  not  only  as  a  cap- 
tain of  industry,  but  as  a  high  authority  on  the  lands  and  resources  of  the  United 
States.     His  thoughts  are  well  worth  weighing. 

"Of  all  the  sinful  wasters  of  man's  inheritance  on  earth."  said  the 
late  Professor  Shaler,  "and  all  are  in  this  regard  sinners,  the  very 
worst  are  the  people  of  America. ' '  This  is  not  a  popular  phrase,  but  a 
scientific  judgment.  It  is  borne  out  by  facts.  In  the  movement  of 
modern  times,  which  has  made  the  world  commercially  a  small  place, 
and  has  produced  a  solidarity  of  the  races  such  as  never  before  existed, 
we  have  come  to  the  point  where  we  must  to  a  certain  extent  regard  the 
natural  resources  of  this  planet  as  a  common  asset,  compare  them  with 
demands  now  made  and  likely  to  be  made  upon  them,  and  study  their 


—  90  — 

judicious  use.  Commerce,  wherever  untrammeled,  is  wiping  out  boun- 
daries and  substituting  the  world  relation  of  demand  and  supply  for 
smaller  systems  of  local  economy.  The  changes  of  a  single  generation 
have  brought  the  nations  of  the  earth  closer  together  than  were  the 
states  of  this  Union  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  If  we  fail  to  consider 
what  we  possess  of  wealth  available  for  the  uses  of  mankind,  and  to 
what  extent  we  are  wasting  a  national  patrimony  that  can  never  be 
restored,  we  might  be  likened  to  the  directors  of  a  company  who  never 
examine  a  balance  sheet. 

The  sum  of  resources  is  simple  and  fixed.  From  the  sea,  the  mine, 
the  forest  and  the  soil  must  be  gathered  everything  that  can  sustain  the 
life  of  man.  Upon  the  wealth  that  these  supply  must  be  conditioned 
forever,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  not  only  his  progress,  but  his  continued 
existence  on  earth.  How  stands  the  inventory  of  property  for  our  own 
people  ?  The  resources  of  the  sea  furnish  less  than  five  per  cent  of  the 
food  supply,  and  that  is  all.  The  forests  of  this  country,  the  product  of 
centuries  of  growth,  are  fast  disappearing.  The  best  estimates  reckon 
our  standing  merchantable  timber  at  less  than  2,000,000,000,000  feet. 
Our  annual  cut  is  about  40,000,000,000,000  feet.  The  lumber  cut  rose 
from  18,000.000,000  feet  in  1880  to  34.000,000,000  feet  in  1905 ;  that  is, 
it  nearly  doubled  in  twenty-five  years.  We  are  now  using  annually  500 
feet  board  measure  of  timber  per  capita,  as  against  an  average  of  60  for 
all  Europe.  The  New  England  supply  is  gone.  The  Northwest  fur- 
nishes small  growths  that  would  have  been  rejected  by  the  lumbermen 
of  thirty  years  ago.  The  South  has  reached  its  maximum  production  and 
begins  to  decline.  On  the  Pacific  coast  only  is  there  now  any  consider- 
able body  of  merchantable  standing  timber.  We  are  consuming  yearly 
three  or  four  times  as  much  timber  as  forest  growth  restores.  Our 
supply  of  some  varieties  will  be  practically  exhausted  in  ten  or  twelve 
years :  in  the  case  of  others,  without  reforesting,  the  pi'esent  century 
will  see  the  end.  When  will  Ave  take  up  in  a  practical  and  intelligent 
way  of  reforestation  of  our  forest  >     *     *     * 

The  exhaustion  of  our  coal  supply  is  not  in  the  indefinite  future. 
The  startling  feature  of  our  coal  production  is  not  so  much  the  magni- 
tude of  the  annual  output  as  its  rate  of  growth.  For  the  decade  ending 
in  1905  the  total  product  was  2,832,402,746  tons,  which  is  almost  exactly 
one  half  the  total  product  previously  mined  in  this  countrj^  For  the 
year  1906  the  output  was  414,000,000  tons,  an  increase  of  46  per  cent  on 
the  average  annual  yield  of  the  ten  years  preceding.  In  1907  our  pro- 
duction reached  470,000,000  tons.  Fifty  years  ago  the  annual  per 
capita  production  was  a  little  more  than  one  quarter  of  a  ton.  It  is 
now  about  five  tons.  It  is  but  eight  years  since  we  took  the  place  of 
Great  Britain  as  the  leading  coal-producing  nation  of  the  world,  and 
already  our  product  exceeds  hers  by  over  43  per  cent,  and  is  37  per  cent 


—  91  — 

of  the  known  production  of  the  world.  Estimates  of  coal  deposits  still 
remaining  must  necessarily  be  somewhat  vague,  but  they  are  approxi- 
mately near  the  mark.  The  best  authorities  do  not  rate  them  at  much 
over  2,000,000,000,000  tons.  If  coal  production  continues  to  increase 
as  it  has  in  the  last  ninety  years,  the  available  supply  will  be  greatly 
reduced  by  the  close  of  the  century.  Before  that  time  arrives,  however, 
resort  to  lower  grades  and  sinking  of  mines  to  greater  depths  will 
become  necessary,  making  the  product  inferior  in  quality  and  higher  in 
price.  Already  Great  Britain's  industries  have  felt  the  check  from  a 
similar  cause,  as  shown  in  her  higher  cost  of  production.  Our  turn  will 
begin  probably  within  a  generation  or  two  from  this  time.  Yet  we  still 
think  nothing  of  consuming  this  priceless  resource  with  the  greatest 
possible  speed.  Our  methods  of  mining  are  often  wasteful;  and  we 
not  only  prohibit  our  industries  from  having  recourse  to  the  coal  sup- 
plies of  other  countries,  but  actually  pride  ourselves  upon  becoming 
exporters  of  a  prime  necessity  of  life  and  an  essential  of  civilization. 

The  iron  industry  tells  a  similar  story.  The  total  of  iron  ore  mined 
in  the  United  States  doubles  about  once  in  seven  years.  It  was  less 
than  12,000.000  tons  in  1893,  over  24,000,000  tons  in  1899,  47,740,000 
tons  in  1906.  and  over  52,000,000  tons  in  1907.  The  rising  place  of  iron 
in  the  world's  life  is  the  most  impressive  phenomenon  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. In  1850  the  pig  iron  production  of  the  United  States  amounted 
to  563,757  tons,  or  about  50  pounds  per  capita.  Our  production  now  is 
over  600  pounds  per  capita.  We  do  not  work  a  mine,  build  a  house, 
weave  a  fabric,  prepare  a  meal  or  cultivate  an  acre  of  ground  under 
modern  methods  without  the  aid  of  iron.  We  turn  out  over  25,000,000 
tons  of  pig  iron  every  year,  and  the  production  for  the  first  half  of 
1907  was  at  the  rate  of  27,000,000  tons.  This  is  two  and  one  half  times 
the  product  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  nearly  half  the  product  of  the  whole 
world.  And  the  supply  of  this  most  precious  of  all  the  metals  is  so  far 
from  inexhaustible  that  it  seems  as  if  iron  and  coal  might  be  united  in 
their  disappearance  from  common  life. 

We  now  turn  to  the  only  remaining  resource  of  man  upon  this  earth, 
which  is  the  soil  itself.  How  are  we  caring  for  that,  and  what  possibili- 
ties does  it  hoM  out  to  the  people  of  future  support?  We  are  only 
beginning  to  feel  the  pressure  upon  the  land.  The  whole  interior  of 
this  continent,  aggregating  more  than  500,000,000  acres,  has  been  occu- 
pied by  settlers  within  the  last  fifty  years.  What  is  there  left  for  the 
next  fifty  years  1  Excluding  arid  and  irrigable  areas,  the  latter  limited 
by  nature,  and  barely  enough  of  which  could  be  made  habitable  in  each 
year  to  furnish  a  farm  for  each  immigrant  family,  the  case  stands  as 
follows:  In  1906  the  total  unappropriated  public  lands  in  the  United 
States  consisted  of  792,000,000  acres.  Of  this  area  the  divisions  of 
Alaska,  Arizona,  California,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Montana,  Nevada,  New 


—  92  ~ 

Mexico,  and  Wyoming  contained  195,700,000  acres  of  unsurveyed  land. 
Little  of  Alaska  is  fitted  for  general  agriculture,  while  practically  all 
of  the  rest  is  semi-arid,  available  only  for  grazing  or  irrigation.  We 
have  (subtracting  these  totals)  50,000,000  acres  of  surveyed  and 
36,500,000  acres  of  unsurveyed  land  as  our  actual  remaining  stock. 
And  21,000,000  acres  were  disposed  of  in  1907.  How  long^'will  the 
remainder  last?  No  longer  can  we  say  that  "Uncle  Sam  has  enough 
to  give  us  all  a  farm. ' ' 

Equally  threatening  is  the  change  in  quality.  There  are  two  ways 
in  which  the  productive  power  of  the  earth  is  lessened ;  first  by  erosion 
and  the  sweeping  away  of  the  fertile  surface  into  streams  and  thence  to 
the  sea,  and,  second,  by  exhaustion  through  wrong  methods  of  cultiva- 
tion. The  former  process  has  gone  far.  Thousands  of  acres  in  the 
East  and  South  have  been  made  unfit  for  tillage.  North  Carolina  was, 
a  century  ago,  one  of  the  great  agricultural  states  of  the  country,  and 
one  of  the  wealthiest.  To-day  as  you  ride  through  the  South  you  see 
everywhere  land  gullied  by  torrential  rains,  red  and  j^ellow  clay  banks 
exposed  where  once  were  fertile  fields ;  and  agriculture  reduced  because 
its  main  support  has  been  washed  away.  ]\Iillions  of  acres,  in  places  to 
the  extent  of  one  tenth  of  the  entire  arable  area,  have  been  so  injured 
that  no  industry  and  no  care  can  restore  them. 

Far  more  ruinous,  because  universal  and  continuing  in  its  effects,  is 
the  process  of  soil  exhaustion.  It  is  creeping  over  the  land  from  East 
to  West.  The  abandoned  farms  that  are  now  the  playthings  of  the  city's 
rich  or  the  game  preserves  of  patrons  of  sport,  bear  witness  to  the 
melancholy  change.  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  northern  New  York, 
show  long  lists  of  them.  In  western  Massachusetts,  which  once  sup- 
ported a  flourishing  agriculture,  farm  properties  are  now  for  sale  for 
half  the  cost  of  the  improvements.  Professor  Carver,  of  Harvt^rd,  has 
declared,  after  a  personal  examination  of  the  country,  that  ''agriculture 
as  an  independent  industry,  able  in  itself  to  support  a  community,  does 
not  exist  in  the  hilly  parts  of  New  England. ' ' 

The  same  process  of  deterioration  is  affecting  the  farm  lands  of 
western  New  York,  Ohio,  and  Indiana.  Where  prices  of  farms  should 
rise  by  increase  of  population,  in  many  places  they  are  falling.  Between 
1880  and  1900  the  land  values  of  Ohio  shrank  $60,000,000.  Official 
investigation  of  two  counties  in  central  New  York  disclosed  a  condition 
of  agricultural  decay.  In  one  land  was  for  sale  for  about  the  cost  of 
improvements,  and  150  vacant  houses  were  counted  in  a  limited  area. 
In  the  other  the  population  in  1905  was  nearly  4,000  lass  than  in  1855. 
Practically  identical  soil  conditions  exist  in  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
where  lands  sell  at  from  $10  to  $30  an  acre.  In  a  hearing  before  an 
industrial  commission,  the  chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Soils  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  said:   "One   of  the   most  important   causes  of 


—  93  — 

deterioration,  and  I  think  I  should  put  this  first  of  all,  is  the  method 
and  system  of  agriculture  that  prevails  throughout  these  states. 
Unquestionably  the  soil  has  been  abused."  The  richest  region  of  the 
West  is  no  more  exempt  than  New  England  or  the  South.  The  soil  of 
the  West  is  being  reduced  in  agricultural  potency  by  exactly  the  same 
processes  which  have  driven  the  farmer  of  the  East,  with  all  his  advan- 
tage of  nearness  to  markets,  from  the  field. 

Within  the  last  forty  years  a  great  part  of  the  richest  land  in  the 
country  has  been  brought  under  cultivation.  We  should,  therefore,  in 
the  same  time,  have  raised  proportionately  the  yield  of  our  principal 
crops  per  acre ;  because  the  yield  of  old  lands,  if  properly  treated,  tends 
to  increase  rather  than  diminish.  The  year  1906  was  one  of  large  crops, 
and  can  scarcely  be  taken  as  a  standard.  We  produced,  for  example, 
more  corn  that  year  than  had  ever  been  grown  in  the  United  States  in 
a  single  year  before.  But  the  average  yield  per  acre  was  less  than  it 
was  in  1872.  We  are  barely  keeping  the  acre  product  stationary.  The 
average  wheat  crop  of  the  country  now  ranges  from  twelve  and  one  half, 
in  ordinary  3^ears,  to  fifteen  bushels  per  acre  in  the  best  seasons.  And 
so  it  is  on  down  the  line. 

Not  only  the  economic  but  the  political  future  is  involved.  No  people 
ever  felt  the  want  of  work  or  the  pinch  of  poverty  for  a  long  time  with- 
out reaching  out  violent  hands  against  their  political  institutions, 
believing  that  they  might  find  in  a  change  some  relief  from  their  dis- 
tress. Although  there  have  been  moments  of  such  restlessness  in  our 
country,  the  trial  has  never  been  so  severe  or  so  prolonged  as  to  put  us 
to  the  test.  It  is  interesting  that  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  England 
during  the  last  century,  a  historian  of  high  merit,  a  statesman  who  saw 
active  service  and  a  profound  student  of  men  and  things,  put  on  record 
his  prophecy  of  such  a  future  ordeal.  Writing  to  an  American  corre- 
spondent fifty  years  ago,  Lord  Macaulay  used  these  words:  "As  long  as 
you  have  a  boundless  extent  of  fertile  and  unoccupied  land,  your  labor- 
ing population  will  be  found  more  at  ease  than  the  laboring  population 
of  the  Old  World;  but  the  time  will  come  when  wages  will  be  as  low 
and  will  fluctuate  as  much  with  you  as  they  do  with  us.  Then  your 
institutions  will  be  brought  to  the  test.  Distress  everywhere  makes  the 
laborer  mutinous  and  discontented,  and  inclines  him  to  listen  with 
eagerness  to  agitators  who  tell  him  that  it  is  a  monstrous  iniquity  that 
one  man  should  have  a  million  and  another  can  not  get  a  full  meal. 
*  *  *  The  day  will  come  when  the  multitudes  of  people,  none  of 
whom  has  had  more  than  half  a  breakfast  or  expects  to  have  more  than 
half  a  dinner,  will  choose  a  legislature.  Is  it  possible  to  doubt  what 
sort  of  legislature  will  be  chosen?  *  *  *  There  will  be,  I  fear, 
spoliation.  The  spoliation  will  increase  the  distress ;  the  distress  will 
produce  a  fresh  spoliation.     *    *     *    Either  civilization  or  liberty  will 


—  94  — 

perish.  Either  some  Caesar  or  Napoleon  will  seize  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment with  a  strong  hand,  or  your  republic  will  be  as  fearfully  plundered 
and  laid  waste  by  barbarians  in  the  tw^entieth  century  as  the  Roman 
Empire  in  the  fifth."  We  need  not  accept  this  gloomy  picture  too 
literally,  but  w-e  have  been  already  sufficiently  warned  to  prevent  us 
from  dismissing  the  subject  as  unworthy  of  attention.  Every  nation 
finds  its  hour  of  peril  when  there  is  no  longer  free  access  to  the  land* 
or  when  the  land  will  no  longer  support  the  people.  *  *  *  Far  may 
this  day  be  from  us.  But  since  the  unnecessary  destruction  of  our  land 
will  bring  new  conditions  of  danger,  its  conservation,  its  improvement 
to  the  highest  point  of  productivity  promised  by  scientific  intelligence 
and  practical  experiment,  appears  to  be  a  first  command  of  any  political 
economy  worthy  of  the  name. 

If  this  patriotic  gospel  is  to  make  headway,  it  must  be  by  just  such 
organized  missionary  work  as  is  to-day  begun.  It  can  not  go  on  and 
conquer  if  imposed  from  wdthout.  It  must  come  to  represent  the  fixed 
idea  of  the  people's  mind,  their  determination  and  their  hope.  It  can 
not  be  .incorporated  in  our  practical  life  by  the  dictum  of  any  individual 
or  any  officer  of  nation  or  state  in  his  official  capacity.  It  needs  the 
cooperation  of  all  the  influences,  the  help  of  every  voice,  the  commenda- 
tion of  nation  and  state  that  has  been  the  strength  and  inspiration  of 
every  worthy  w^ork  on  American  soil  for  120  years.  We  return,  for  our 
gathering  in  council  and  for  our  plan  of  action  for  the  future,  to  the 
model  given  us  by  the  fathers.  State  and  nation  are  represented  here, 
without  jealousy  or  any  ambition  of  superiority  on  either  side,  to  apply 
to  the  consideration  of  our  future  such  cooperation  as  that  o\it  of  Avhich 
this  nation  w^as  born,  and  by  which  it  has  won  to  worthy  manhood. 
Reviving  the  spirit  of  the  days  that  created  our  Constitution,  the  days 
that  carried  us  through  civil  conflict,  the  spirit  by  which  all  our  endur- 
ing work  in  the  w-orld  has  been  wrought,  taking  thought  as  Washington 
and  Lincoln  took  thought,  only  for  the  highest  good  of  all  the  people,  we 
may,  as  a  result  of  the  deliberations  held  and  the  conclusions  reached 
here  to-day,  give  new  meaning  to  our  future;  new  lustre  to  the  ideal 
of  a  republic  of  living  federated  states ;  shape  anew  the  fortunes  of  this 
country,  and  enlarge  the  borders  of  hope  for  all  mankind. 


95 


THE  SECRETARY  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

Perhaps  no  one  has  had  a  better  opportunity  to  know  about  the  so'\]  of  this 
nation  than  James  Wilson,  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture.  He  made  the  following 
remarks. 

' '  The  paper  read  by  Mr.  Hill  this  morning  made  a  ver^'  deep  impres- 
sion upon  me.  The  greatest  asset  we  have  in  the  United  States  is  our 
soil ;  we  are  destroying  that  as  rapidly  as  we  can,  and  the  oldest  settled 
part  of  the  United  States  has  made  the  most  progress  in  the  destruction 
of  our  soil,  of  which  we  have  a  great  variety.  Down  on  the  Gulf 
coast  the  land  has  been  peopled  longer  than  the  upper  part  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  The  heavy  rainfalls,  and  the  perpetual  cultivation 
and  growing  of  crops  have  helped  erosion,  and  the  soil  has  been 
destroyed  in  that  way.  It  is  going  off  very,  very  rapidly.  The»cure 
is  a  system  of  agriculture  that  will  keep  the  soil  filled  with  plant  food, 
organic  matter,  humus.  That  is  the  cure ;  that  is  the  way  to  keep  up  the 
soil.  Somebody  once  asked  an  English  gardener  how  he  got  such  a  fine 
lawn.  He  had  a  beautiful  grass  lawn  which  attracted  attention.  He 
said,  'We  weeded,  and  we  weeded:  we  manured  and  we  manured,  for 
eight  hundred  years;'  and  that  is  the  way  they  got  it." 


IN  WISCONSIN. 

The  Governor  of  Wisconsin  graphically  described  the  recent  history  of  his 
own  state. 

' '  Great  lumber  companies, ' '  said  Governor  Davidson,  ' '  inspired  only 
by  an  enthusiasm  and  a  greed  which  knew  no  bounds,  attacked  these 
forests,  engaging  in  a  mad  race  each  to  strip  its  territory,  to  market  its 
lumber  first,  and  then  to  move  forward  and  continue  the  destruction. 
No  tree  was  regarded  as  too  small  to  escape  cutting.  Trunks  six  inches 
in  diameter  were  cut  for  lumber.  Millions  of  young  trees  and  saplings, 
which  were  too  small  to  have  any  commercial  value,  were  crushed  by 
falling  timber,  or  were  cut  to  make  room  for  logging  roads.  Those  that 
escaped  the  axe  of  the  loggers  fell  ^actims  to  forest  fires,  the  destruction 
by  which  can  only  be  counted  by  the  millions  of  dollars — a  further 
melancholy  evidence  of  the  carelessness  with  which  our  forest  tracts 
were  guarded. 

'' To-day  we  are  beginning  to  feel  the  penalty  for  this  indifference. 
Our  proud  position  as  the  greatest  timber  state  of  the  Union  has  passed 
to  others.  Thousands  of  acres  of  land  of  no  value  for  agriculture  have 
been  rendered  bare  and  practically  worthless ;  our  swamps  are  drying 
up.  and  as  a  consequence  many  of  our  streams  have  shrunk  to  but  a 
small  proportion  of  their  former  size.     The  destruction  of  our  forests 


—  96  — 

has  taken  from  us  that  great  regulator  of  the  streams,  for  with  no 
forests  to  protect  the  head  water  of  rivers  and  to  detain  the  water 
upon  the  soil,  we  have  frequent  freshets  and  floods,  and  are  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  dealing  with  rapidly  rising  and  falling  stream 
volume — a  condition  which  has  already  rendered  many  of  our  one-time 
valuable  water  powers  practically  worthless." 


A  DISSENTING  VIEW. 

President  James  of  the  University  of  Illinois  dissented  from  the  ideas  of  the 
other  speakers. 

It  was  his  optimistic  opinion,  that  no  such  waste  as  had  been  alluded 
to  by  previous  speakers  had  existed  in  this  country;  or,  if  it  did  exist, 
it  was  not  really  waste,  but  the  simple  methods  that,  instinctively 
adopted  by  the  early  settlers  of  the  country,  had  proven  themselves  in 
the  main  correct.  He  said  that  the  fact  that  farms  of  the  East  have 
passed  out  of  cultivation  is  not  necessarily  an  indication  that  those 
farms  have  lost  their  productive  power,  but,  rather,  that  they  have 
been  abandoned  because  of  the  opening  up  of  broader  fields  of  useful- 
ness in  the  regions  beyond  the  IMississippi  and  the  Missouri,  and  he  said 
he  believed  that,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  the  greatest  natural  resources 
the  country  possesses  is  not  its  forests,  its  rivers,  its  mines,  or  its  soil, 
but  in  the  brains  of  its  people. 


97 


DECLARATION  OF  PRINCIPLES. 

Before  adjourning,  the  Governors  signed  the  following  Declaration  as 
embodying  the  results  of  the  Convention  : 

DECLARATION. 

We,  the  Governors  of  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  in  conference  assembled,  do  hereby  declare  the  conviction  that  the 
great  prosperity  of  our  country  rests  upon  the  abundant  resources  of  the  land 
chosen  by  our  forefathers  for  their  homes,  and  where  they  laid  the  foundation  of 
this  great  nation. 

We  look  upon  these  resources  as  a  heritage  to  be  made  use  of  in  establishing 
and  promoting  the  comfort,  prosperity,  and  happiness  of  the  American  people, 
but  not  to  be  wasted,  deteriorated,  or  needlessly  destroyed. 

We  agree  that  our  country's  future  is  involved  in  this;  that  the  great  natural 
resources  supply  the  material  basis  upon  which  our  civilization  must  continue 
to  depend,  and  upon  which  the  perpetuity  of  the  nation   itself  rests. 

We  agree,  in  the  light  of  the  facts  brought  to  our  knowledge  and  from  infor- 
nnation  received  from  sources  which  we  can  not  doubt,  that  this  material  basis 
is  threatened  with  exhaustion.  Even  as  each  succeeding  generation  from  the 
birth  of  the  nation  has  performed  its  part  in  promoting  the  progress  and 
development  of  the  Republic,  so  do  we  in  this  generation  recognize  it  as  a  high 
duty  to  perform  our  part;  and  this  duty  in  large  degree  lies  in  the  adoption 
of  measures  for  the  conservation  of  the  natural  wealth  of  the  country. 

We  declare  our  firm  conviction  that  this  conservation  of  our  natural  resources 
is  a  subject  of  transcendent  importance,  which  should  engage  unremittingly 
the  attention  of  the  nation,  the  States,  end  the  people  in  earnest  co-operation. 
These  natureil  resources  include  the  land  on  which  we  live  and  which  yields 
our  food;  the  living  waters  which  fertilize  the  soil,  supply  power,  and  form 
great  avenues  of  commerce;  the  forests  which  yield  the  materials  for  our  homes, 
prevent  erosion  of  the  soil,  and  conserve  the  navigation  and  other  uses  of  the 
streams;  and  the  minerals  which  form  the  basis  of  our  industrial  life,  and  supply 
us  with  heat,  light,  and  power. 

We  agree  that  the  land  should  be  so  used  that  erosion  and  soil  wash  shall 
cease;  and  that  there  should  be  reclamation  of  arid  and  semi-arid  regions  by 
nneans  of  irrigation,  and  of  swamp  and  overflowed  regions  by  means  of  drainage; 
that  the  waters  should  be  so  conserved  and  used  as  to  promote  navigation,  to 
enable  the  arid  regions  to  be  reclaimed  by  irrigation,  and  to  develop  power  in 
the  interests  of  the  people;  that  the  forests  which  regulate  our  rivers,  support 
our  industries,  and  promote  the  fertility  and  productiveness  of  the  soil  should 
be  preserved  and  perpetuated;  that  the  minerals  found  so  abundantly  beneath 
the  surface  should  be  so  used  as  to  prolong  their  utility;  that  the  beauty,  health- 
fulness,  and  habitability  of  our  country  should  be  preserved  and  increased; 
that  sources  of  national  wealth  exist  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  and  that 
monopoly  thereof  should  not  be  tolerated. 

We  commend  the  wise  forethought  of  the  President  in  sounding  the  note  of 
warning  as  to  the  waste  and  exhaustion  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  country, 
and  signify  our  high  appreciation  of  his  action  in  calling  this  conference  to  con- 
sider the  same  and  to  seek  remedies  therefor  through  co-operation  of  the  Nation 
and  States. 

We  agree  that  this  co-operation  should  find  expression  in  suitable  action  by 
the  Congress  within  the  limits  of  and  coextensive  with  the  national  jurisdiction 
of  the  subject,  and,  complimentary  thereto,  by  the  Legislatures  of  the  several 
states  within  the  limits  of  and  coextensive  with  their  jurisdiction. 

7— NR 


.  .„  ^.^.,  ,  ;^  •  •  •  -_  98  — 

We  declare 'the* cbnVictrori*  that  in. iVie  use  of  the  national  resources  our  inde- 
ipendent  States  are  interdependent  and  bound  together  by  ties  of  mutual  benefits, 
responsibilities,  and  duties. 

We  agree  in  the  wisdom  of  future  conferences  between  the  President,  Mem- 
bers of  Congress,  and  the  Governors  of  States  on  the  conservation  of  our  natural 
resources  with  a  view  of  continued  co-operation  and  action  on  the  lines  sug- 
gested; and  to  this  end  we  advise  that  from  time  to  time,  as  in  his  judgment 
unay  seem  wise,  the  President  call  the  Governors  of  States  and  Members  of  Con- 
tgress  and  others  into  conference. 

We  agree  that  further  action  is  advisable  to  ascertain  the  present  condition 
of  our  natural  resources  and  to  promote  the  conservation  of  the  same;  and  to 
that  end  we  recommend  the  appointment  by  each  State  of  a  commission  on  the 
conservation  of  natural  resources,  to  co-operate  with  each  other  and  with  any 
similar  commission  of  the  Federal  Government. 

We  urge  the  continuation  and  extension  of  forest  policies  adapted  to  secure 
the  husbanding  and  renewal  of  our  diminishing  timber  supply,  the  prevention  of 
soil  erosion,  the  protection  of  head  waters,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  purity 
and  navigability  of  our  streams.  We  recognize  that  the  private  ownership  of 
forest  lands  entails  responsiblities  in  the  interests  of  the  people,  and  we  favor 
the  enactment  of  laws  looking  to  the  protection  and  replacement  of  privately 
owned  forests. 

We  recognize  in  our  waters  a  most  valuable  asset  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  we  recommend  the  enactment  of  laws  looking  to  the  conservation 
of  water  resources  for  irrigation,  water  supply,  power,  and  navigation,  to  the 
end  that  navigable  and  source  streams  may  be  brought  under  complete  control 
and  fully  utilized  for  every  purpose.  We  especially  urge  on  the  Federal  Congress 
the  immediate  adoption  of  a  wise,  active,  and  thorough  waterway  policy,  pro- 
viding for  the  prompt  improvement  of  our  streams  and  the  conservation  of  their 
watersheds  required  for  the  uses  of  commerce  and  the  protection  of  the  interests 
of  our  people. 

We  recommend  the  enactment  of  laws  looking  to  the  prevention  of  waste  In 
the  mining  and  extraction  of  coal,  oil,  gas,  and  other  minerals  with  a  view  to 
their  wise  conservation  for  the  use  of  the  people,  and  to  the  protection  of  human 
life  in  the  mines. 

Let  us  conserve  the  foundations  of  our  prosperity. 


FINAL  WORD. 

This  handbook  should  be  duly  stamped, 
catalogued  and  placed  in  the  school  library  for 
future  reference.  It  will  be  needed  for  essays 
and  compositions,  debates  and  recitations,  read- 
ings and  memory  gems.  After  this  edition  is 
exhausted  it  will  not  be  possible  to  get  dupli- 
cates. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


6  AprDS'se 
JUNI    19561. 

12Jan'62GF 


REC'D 

JAN  4 


LID 

19(12 


LD  21-100m-ll,'49(B71468l6)476 


tin 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


